Abstract
The aim of this study is to develop a non-continuous droplet manipulation technology in contrast to conventional continuous flow micro-fluidic systems. The droplets were manipulated based on the proposed opto-wetting effect. In addition, an experimental ultraviolet (UV) light actuated droplet manipulation system was developed for verifying the opto-wetting droplet manipulation. The proposed opto-wetting effect was achieved by utilizing ultraviolet to activate oxidation-reduction mechanism of nano-TiO2 photo catalyst coated base material. The water-affinity of the base material will changed due to the decreased free-energy of the material surface. Therefore, the contact angle between the liquid droplet and base material will also be changed which facilitates droplet manipulability. The main components of the proposed ultraviolet (UV) light actuated droplet manipulation system include ultraviolet masking device, moving platform and main frame structure. System software and user interface were designed by using Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 toolkit. Upon completion of the proposed system, experiments were carried out to verify system functionalities. Follow by the controlled variable optimization using Taguchi method and liquid droplet manipulation experiments. The experiment results indicate that by exposure to 6.8mW UV light, the surface tension and hydrophilic property of nano-TiO2 (anatase type, 3.5% concentration, PH 1.5, and with average particle size of 69 nm) coated base material will changed. The change of surface tension and hydrophilic property were critical for droplet manipulation. The moving speed of the liquid droplet was measured as 3.33mm/sec. The results suggest that the opto-wetting system may be effective to overcome the shortcoming of traditional opto-electrowetting technique. The proposed opto-wetting droplet manipulation system could potentially applied for manipulating biomedical or pathological test specimens in the future.
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