School of Engineering , RMIT University , Melbourne , VIC 3000 , Australia.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2019 Oct 23;11(42):39283-39291. doi: 10.1021/acsami.9b10796. Epub 2019 Oct 11.
Here, we introduce the novel concept of a "soft shuttle" for transportation, manipulation, and diffusion studies of small liquid droplets using electrowetting on the dielectric mechanism. This method enables manipulation of droplets several times smaller than the electrode size and, importantly, minimizes evaporation, contamination, and exposure of the sample to high voltages. We demonstrate various modes of droplet loading, transporting, and unloading. Using advanced imaging processing techniques, we obtained detailed information about the shuttle and droplet centroids. Furthermore, varying water concentration on the soft shuttle allows for modulation of the diffusion kinetics of samples into the shuttle, which also can be controlled with soft shuttle actuation velocity. We believe that this novel approach for the manipulation of droplets will advance the field of droplet-based open microfluidics and can be potentially useful for applications in biotechnology, diagnostics, or analytical chemistry.
在这里，我们引入了一种新颖的“软梭子”概念，用于使用介电上电润湿机制进行小液滴的传输、操作和扩散研究。这种方法可以操纵比电极尺寸小几倍的液滴，重要的是，最大限度地减少了蒸发、污染和样品暴露于高压的情况。我们展示了各种液滴加载、传输和卸载模式。使用先进的成像处理技术，我们获得了有关梭子和液滴质心的详细信息。此外，改变软梭子上的水浓度可以调节样品进入软梭子的扩散动力学，这也可以通过软梭子的驱动速度来控制。我们相信，这种用于操作液滴的新方法将推动基于液滴的开放式微流控领域的发展，并可能在生物技术、诊断学或分析化学等领域有潜在的应用。
