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Programmable droplet actuating platform using liquid dielectrophoresis

Frozanpoor, Iman; Cooke, Michael; Racz, Zoltan; Bossons, Ian; Ambukan, Vibin; Wood, David; Gallant, Andrew; Balocco, Claudio

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Authors

Iman Frozanpoor

Zoltan Racz

Ian Bossons

Vibin Ambukan

David Wood



Abstract

Droplet motion has been a long-standing interest in microfluidics as it is often limited by the high operating voltages, which hampers the development of consumer applications. Forces generated by liquid dielectrophoresis (L-DEP) can enhance surface wetting, without requiring chemical modification or surface texturing. This work presents a droplet actuating platform to control the wetting behaviour of water droplets using L-DEP. The exploitation of high electric fields at the droplet solid–liquid interface reduced the operating voltages. The operating voltage can be further reduced, to as low as 30 V, by introducing a lubricant layer to minimise the droplet contact angle hysteresis, thus requiring a smaller L-DEP bulk force. The outcomes of this study will provide a new pathway for developing energy-efficient and reliable droplet actuating platforms to clean a variety of surfaces. A particular interest will be the application of this system in the automobile sector, for instance, to clean headlamps, sensors, cameras, door mirrors, front side glass, and rear screen.

Citation

Frozanpoor, I., Cooke, M., Racz, Z., Bossons, I., Ambukan, V., Wood, D., …Balocco, C. (2021). Programmable droplet actuating platform using liquid dielectrophoresis. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 31(5), https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6439/abf032

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 18, 2021
Online Publication Date Apr 20, 2021
Publication Date 2021-04
Deposit Date Sep 8, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
Print ISSN 0960-1317
Electronic ISSN 1361-6439
Publisher IOP Publishing
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 31
Issue 5
DOI https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6439/abf032

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.





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