title: Liquid-Metal Microdroplets Formed Dynamically with Electrical Control of Size and Rate.
abstract: Liquid metal co-injected with electrolyte through a microfluidic flow-focusing orifice forms droplets with diameters and production frequencies controlled in real time by voltage. Applying voltage to the liquid metal controls the interfacial tension via a combination of electrochemistry and electrocapillarity. This simple and effective method can instantaneously tune the size of the microdroplets, which has applications in composites, catalysts, and microsystems.
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia.
authors.forename: Shi-Yang
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
authors.forename: Ishan D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Joshipura
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
authors.forename: Yiliang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia.
authors.forename: Kourosh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kalantar-Zadeh
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia.
authors.forename: Arnan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia.
authors.forename: Khashayar
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Khoshmanesh
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Dickey
keywords: electrocapillarity; flow-focusing; liquid metals; microdroplets; soft electronics