Generation and Transport of Dielectric Droplets along Microchannels by Corona Discharge.

Qiang Tang,Junheng Pan,Jau Tang,Huai Zheng,Shangru Zhou,Ruiheng Hu

doi:10.3390/mi11020181

Abstract

In this paper, a phenomenon of generation and transport of droplets is proposed, which is based on the dielectric liquid electroconvection induced by corona discharge. We placed the dielectric fluid on a conductive/nonconductive substrate, and then it broke apart to become many small droplets that move along the conductive microchannel. The behaviors of dielectric droplets were experimentally observed on different conductive microchannels in details. Spreading speeds and sizes of dielectric droplets were analyzed at different driving voltages and conductive microchannels. This work highlights a simple approach to produce and manipulate dielectric droplets along microchannels.

Highlights

Droplet-based microfluidic systems have received significant attention in the past 20 years owing to their low-volume and flexible transmission, which has been found wide applications in miniaturized bio-analytical and chemical fields [1,2,3,4]
Droplets generation technologies have been developed by using external forces such as magnetic force [7], electric force [8], or acoustic force [9]
To evaluate the main factors affecting droplets’ movement and formation in the study, the electric field of droplets on the indium tin oxide (ITO) film surface was simulated using the electrostatic modules of COMSOL Multiphysics

Summary

Introduction

Droplet-based microfluidic systems have received significant attention in the past 20 years owing to their low-volume and flexible transmission, which has been found wide applications in miniaturized bio-analytical and chemical fields [1,2,3,4]. A number of previous reports refer this to the directional driving of the electric wind exerting upon the dielectric fluid [13,22].

Results

Conclusion