Ni Erli, Song Lin, Li Zhichao, Lu Guixuan, Jiang Yanyan, Li Hui
Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University Jinan 250061 China
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University Xi'an 710072 China.
Nanoscale Adv. 2022 Apr 13;4(12):2752-2761. doi: 10.1039/d1na00832c. eCollection 2022 Jun 14.
Controllable directional transport of a liquid metal nanodroplet in a microchannel has been a challenge in the field of nanosensors, nanofluidics, and nanofabrication. In this paper, we report a novel design that the self-actuation of a gallium nanodroplet in a two-plate confinement microchannel could be achieved a continuous wetting gradient. More importantly, suitable channel parameters could be used to manipulate the dynamic behavior of the gallium nanodroplet. The self-actuation transport in the two-plate confinement microchannel is the result of the competition between the driving force from the difference of the Laplace pressure and energy dissipation from the viscous resistance. Furthermore, we have identified the conditions to assess whether the droplet will pass through the contractive cross-section or not. This work can provide guidance for manipulating liquid metal nanodroplets in microchannels.
在微通道中实现液态金属纳米液滴的可控定向输运一直是纳米传感器、纳米流体学和纳米制造领域的一项挑战。在本文中，我们报告了一种新颖的设计，即通过连续的润湿梯度可实现镓纳米液滴在双板限制微通道中的自驱动。更重要的是，可利用合适的通道参数来操控镓纳米液滴的动态行为。双板限制微通道中的自驱动输运是拉普拉斯压力差产生的驱动力与粘性阻力导致的能量耗散之间竞争的结果。此外，我们已经确定了评估液滴是否会通过收缩横截面的条件。这项工作可为在微通道中操控液态金属纳米液滴提供指导。
