title: Superhydrophobic surfaces as an on-chip microfluidic toolkit for total droplet control.
abstract: We propose and outline a novel technique designed to utilize the unique surface repulsion present between aqueous droplets and customizable superhydrophobic surfaces for the on-chip spatial and temporal manipulation of droplets within microfluidic architectures. Through the integration of carefully designed and prepatterned superhydrophobic surfaces into polymer microfluidic chipsets, it is possible to take advantage of this enhanced surface repulsion to passively manipulate droplets on the microscale for a wide range of droplet operations, including but not limited to acceleration, deceleration, merging, and path control. This work aims to help fulfill and stimulate development based around current requirements for additional passive analytical manipulation and detection techniques in order to enable a reduction in experimental design complexity with the goal of facilitating and improving portability for Lab-on-a-chip devices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Mark C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Draper
authors.forename: Colin R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Crick
authors.forename: Viktorija
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Orlickaite
authors.forename: Vladimir A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Turek
authors.forename: Ivan P
authors.initials: IP
authors.lastname: Parkin
authors.forename: Joshua B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Edel
mesh_terms: D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D008422:Materials Testing; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D013499:Surface Properties; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D006046:Gold