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Droplet motion electrically controlled

The movement of small droplets on a substrate is governed by surface-tension forces. A technique that can tune the surface tension of robust oxide substrates for droplet manipulation could open up many applications.
  1. Frieder Mugele

    1. Frieder Mugele is at the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, Physics of Complex Fluids, University of Twente, Enschede, 7500 AE, the Netherlands.

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Many plants and insects control their interactions with raindrops and other forms of ambient humidity using surface patterns of hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions1. In artificial devices, the ability to switch between such patterns enables the complex manipulation of droplets for applications including biomedical lab-on-a-chip systems2,3, optofluidic lenses4 and displays5, and energy-harvesting systems6. A method called electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) is arguably the most mature and versatile tool for achieving such functionality7. However, its commercial success has been limited, because the required hydrophobic dielectric (electrically insulating) surfaces gradually degrade. Writing in Nature, Li et al.8 report an approach to tune the wettability of chemically robust hydrophilic surfaces by electrically controlling the adsorption and desorption of molecules called surfactants. If this technology is successful, it might help to turn some previous EWOD-based systems into reliable devices.

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Nature 572, 445-446 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02451-5

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