Low friction droplet transportation on a substrate with a selective Leidenfrost effect

Dodd, L.E., Wood, D., Geraldi, N.R., Wells, G.G., McHale, G., Xu, B.B., Stuart-Cole, S., Martin, J. and Newton, M.I. ORCID: 0000-0003-4231-1002, 2016. Low friction droplet transportation on a substrate with a selective Leidenfrost effect. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 8 (34), pp. 22658-22663. ISSN 1944-8244

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Abstract

An energy saving Leidenfrost levitation method is introduced to transport micro-droplets with virtually frictionless contact between the liquid and solid substrate. By micro-engineering the heating units, selective areas of the whole substrate can be electro-thermally activated. A droplet can be levitated as a result of the Leidenfrost effect, and further transported when the substrate is tilted slightly. The selective electro-heating produces a uniform temperature distribution on the heating units within 1 s, in response to a triggering voltage. Alongside these experimental observations, finite element simulations are conducted to understand the to understand the role of the substrate thermal conductivity on the temperature profile of the selectively heated substrate,. We also generate phase diagrams to verify the Leidenfrost regime for different substrate materials. Finally, we demonstrate the possibility of controlling low friction high speed droplet transportation (~ 65 mm/s) when the substrate is tilted (~ 7 °) by structurally designing the substrate. This work establishes the basis for an entirely new approach to droplet microfluidics.

Item Type: Journal article
Publication Title: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
Creators: Dodd, L.E., Wood, D., Geraldi, N.R., Wells, G.G., McHale, G., Xu, B.B., Stuart-Cole, S., Martin, J. and Newton, M.I.
Publisher: American Chemical Society
Date: 2 August 2016
Volume: 8
Number: 34
ISSN: 1944-8244
Identifiers:
NumberType
10.1021/acsami.6b06738DOI
Divisions: Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by: Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added: 06 Sep 2016 15:07
Last Modified: 16 Oct 2017 13:32
URI: https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28398

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