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

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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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Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.6b06738

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:

Number: