Superhydrophobic Surfaces as an On-Chip Microfluidic Toolkit for Total Droplet Control

We propose and outline a novel technique designed to utilize the unique surface repulsion present between aqueous droplets and customizable superhydrophobic surfaces for the on-chip spatial and temporal manipulation of droplets within microfluidic architectures. Through the integration of carefully...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Analytical chemistry (Washington) 2013-06, Vol.85 (11), p.5405-5410
Main Authors: Draper, Mark C, Crick, Colin R, Orlickaite, Viktorija, Turek, Vladimir A, Parkin, Ivan P, Edel, Joshua B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analytical chemistry
Aqueous chemistry
Gold - chemistry
Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
Lab-On-A-Chip Devices
Materials Testing
Metal Nanoparticles - chemistry
Microfluidic Analytical Techniques - instrumentation
Microfluidic Analytical Techniques - methods
Polymers
Surface Properties
Water - chemistry
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We propose and outline a novel technique designed to utilize the unique surface repulsion present between aqueous droplets and customizable superhydrophobic surfaces for the on-chip spatial and temporal manipulation of droplets within microfluidic architectures. Through the integration of carefully designed and prepatterned superhydrophobic surfaces into polymer microfluidic chipsets, it is possible to take advantage of this enhanced surface repulsion to passively manipulate droplets on the microscale for a wide range of droplet operations, including but not limited to acceleration, deceleration, merging, and path control. This work aims to help fulfill and stimulate development based around current requirements for additional passive analytical manipulation and detection techniques in order to enable a reduction in experimental design complexity with the goal of facilitating and improving portability for Lab-on-a-chip devices.
ISSN:0003-2700
1520-6882
DOI:10.1021/ac303786s