title: Controlling flow behavior of water in microfluidics with a chemically patterned anisotropic wetting surface.
abstract: We report the flow behavior of water in microfluidic systems based on a chemically patterned anisotropic wetting surface. When water flows inside a microchannel on top of a micropatterned surface with alternating hydrophilic/hydrophobic stripes, it exhibits an anisotropic flowing characteristic owing to the anisotropic wettability; thus, the patterned surface acts as a microvalve for the microfluidic system. The anisotropic flow of water is influenced by the microscale features of the patterns and the dimensions of the microchannels. Furthermore, by reasonably combining the patterned surface and microchannel together, we realize the transportation of water in a microchannel along a "virtual" wall, which is the boundary of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic area. We believe that the chemically patterned surfaces could be an alternative strategy to control the flow behavior of water in microfluidic channels.
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Shuli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: ‡Research Center for Molecular Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110004, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Tieqiang
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Peihong
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Shunsheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hongxu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zibo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Junhu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Bai
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D044085:Microfluidics / Q000379:methods*; D013499:Surface Properties; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D017155:Wettability
chemical_list: D014867:Water