title: A route toward digital manipulation of water nanodroplets on surfaces.
abstract: Manipulation of an isolated water nanodroplet (WN) on certain surfaces is important to various nanofluidic applications but challenging. Here we present a digital nanofluidic system based on a graphene/water/mica sandwich structure. In this architecture, graphene provides a flexible protection layer to isolate WNs from the outside environment, and a monolayer ice-like layer formed on the mica surface acts as a lubricant layer to allow these trapped WNs to move on it freely. In combination with scanning probe microscope techniques, we are able to move, merge, and separate individual water nanodroplets in a controlled manner. The smallest manipulatable water nanodroplet has a volume down to yoctoliter (10(-24) L) scale.
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Duoming
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhaoru
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Guole
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Guibai
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Congli
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Donghua
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Limei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Dongxia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Enge
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Guangyu
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang