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Switchable Wettability and Adhesion of Micro/Nanostructured Elastomer Surface via Electric Field for Dynamic Liquid Droplet Manipulation

ABSTRACT: Abstract Dynamic control of liquid wetting behavior on smart surfaces has attracted considerable concern owing to their important applications in directional motion, confined wetting and selective separation. Despite much progress in this regard, there still remains challenges in dynamic liquid droplet manipulation with fast response, no loss and anti?contamination. Herein, a strategy to achieve dynamic droplet manipulation and transportation on the electric field adaptive superhydrophobic elastomer surface is demonstrated. The superhydrophobic elastomer surface is fabricated by combining the micro/nanostructured clusters of hydrophobic TiO2 nanoparticles with the elastomer film, on which the micro/nanostructure can be dynamically and reversibly tuned by electric field due to the electric field adaptive deformation of elastomer film. Accordingly, fast and reversible transition of wetting state between Cassie state and Wenzel state and tunable adhesion on the surface via electric field induced morphology transformation can be obtained. Moreover, the motion states of the surface droplets can be controlled dynamically and precisely, such as jumping and pinning, catching and releasing, and controllable liquid transfer without loss and contamination. Thus this work would open the avenue for dynamic liquid manipulation and transportation, and gear up the broad application prospects in liquid transfer, selective separation, anti?fog, anti?ice, microfluidics devices, etc. Dynamic liquid droplet manipulation and transportation are demonstrated on the superhydrophobic micro/nanostructured elastomer surface via electric field, based on electric adaptive switchable wettability and tunable adhesion. This work provides a new route for precise liquid manipulation and transfer, and is promising in designing and constructing smart interface materials.

SUBMITTER: Li Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7509640 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:We have developed droplet microfluidic devices in thermoplastics and demonstrated the integration of key functional components that not only facilitate droplet generation, but also include electric field-assisted reagent injection, droplet splitting, and magnetic field-assisted bead extraction. We manufactured devices in poly(methyl methacrylate) and cyclic olefin polymer using a hot-embossing procedure employing silicon masters fabricated via photolithography and deep reactive ion etching techniques. Device characterization showed robust fabrication with uniform feature transfer and good embossing yield. Channel modification with heptadecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrodecyltrichlorosilane increased device hydrophobicity, allowing stable generation of 330-pL aqueous droplets using T-junction configuration. Picoinjector and K-channel motifs were also both successfully integrated into the thermoplastic devices, allowing for robust control over electric field-assisted reagent injection, as well as droplet splitting with the K-channel. A magnetic field was also introduced to the K-channel geometry to allow for selective concentration of magnetic beads while decanting waste volume through droplet splitting. To show the ability to link multiple, modular features in a single thermoplastic device, we integrated droplet generation, reagent injection, and magnetic field-assisted droplet splitting on a single device, realizing a magnetic bead washing scheme to selectively exchange the fluid composition around the magnetic particles, analogous to the washing steps in many common biochemical assays. Finally, integrated devices were used to perform a proof-of-concept in-droplet β-galactosidase enzymatic assay combining enzyme-magnetic bead containing droplet generation, resorufin-β-D-galactopyranoside substrate injection, enzyme-substrate reaction, and enzyme-magnetic bead washing. By integrating multiple droplet operations and actuation forces we have demonstrated the potential of thermoplastic droplet microfluidic devices for complex (bio)chemical analysis, and we envision a path toward mass fabrication of droplet microfluidic devices for a range of (bio)chemical applications.

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Switchable Wettability and Adhesion of Micro/Nanostructured Elastomer Surface via Electric Field for Dynamic Liquid Droplet Manipulation

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