Abstract
Natural creatures that enables controllable liquid transport provides the inspiration for developing novel microfluidic devices by engineering functional surfaces with superwettability. However, towards microfluidic applications, the strict requirements of sophisticated droplet manipulation make it challenging to reach this end. In this work, we report a conceptually new self-propelled droplet manipulation strategy based on reconfigurable superhydrophobic chips. The modular droplet chip (MDC) is developed by laser embossing a series of superhydrophobic structures on elastomer jigsaws that act as functional units. MDC is potable since only gravity is used as the driving force for dynamic manipulation of liquid droplets, including droplets transporting, splitting, merging and bouncing without mass loss. The MDC demonstrated reasonable anti-cross-contamination property due to the water repellence of the superhydrophobicity. Modular assembly of MDC enables different chip functions including solution dilution, SERS detection, cell labeling and chemical synthesis. As a miniature and portable experimental platform, the MDC is promising for next-generation lab-on-a-chip systems.
Highlights
As a miniaturized experimental platform, microfluidic chips enable extremely sensitive, efficient, low-consumption, safe and environment-friendly biochemical reactions, revealing great potential in a diverse array of applications ranging from chemical synthesis to biological assays [1,2,3,4,5]
To achieve a modular design, the squire chips is a fixed size of 3 × 3 cm, in which a tooth (5 × 5 mm) or a gap (5 × 5 mm) is designed on each side for flexible linkage. The design of such modular droplet chip (MDC) aims at bridging the gap between macroscopic apparatus and microfluidic chips (Fig. 1a)
Laboratory glassware can be assembled into experimental instruments that enable various routine chemical synthesis and analysis
Summary
As a miniaturized experimental platform, microfluidic chips enable extremely sensitive, efficient, low-consumption, safe and environment-friendly biochemical reactions, revealing great potential in a diverse array of applications ranging from chemical synthesis to biological assays [1,2,3,4,5]. In addition to conventional microfluidic chips, some new paradigms, for instance, digital microfluidic (DMF) chips [6,7,8,9] and surface-directed (2021) 2:17 microfluidic (SDMF) systems [10,11,12], have emerged as alternatives. The former chips are generally reconfigurable for desired combination of droplet operations, since they realize fluidic operations, such as dispensing, transporting, splitting and merging droplets, by electrowetting effect using electrode arrays [13, 14]. Neo microfluidic systems that feature self-controlled fluids handling, reconfigurable channel networks, real portability and extensible functionalities are highly desirable
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