title: Mechano-regulated surface for manipulating liquid droplets.
abstract: The effective transfer of tiny liquid droplets is vital for a number of processes such as chemical and biological microassays. Inspired by the tarsi of meniscus-climbing insects, which can climb menisci by deforming the water/air interface, we developed a mechano-regulated surface consisting of a background mesh and a movable microfibre array with contrastive wettability. The adhesion of this mechano-regulated surface to liquid droplets can be reversibly switched through mechanical reconfiguration of the microfibre array. The adhesive force can be tuned by varying the number and surface chemistry of the microfibres. The in situ adhesion of the mechano-regulated surface can be used to manoeuvre micro-/nanolitre liquid droplets in a nearly loss-free manner. The mechano-regulated surface can be scaled up to handle multiple droplets in parallel. Our approach offers a miniaturized mechano-device with switchable adhesion for handling micro-/nanolitre droplets, either in air or in a fluid that is immiscible with the droplets.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, the University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China.|HKU-Zhejiang Institute of Research and Innovation (HKU-ZIRI), Hangzhou, Zhejiang 311300, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, the University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China.|HKU-Zhejiang Institute of Research and Innovation (HKU-ZIRI), Hangzhou, Zhejiang 311300, China.
authors.forename: Pingan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, the University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China.|HKU-Zhejiang Institute of Research and Innovation (HKU-ZIRI), Hangzhou, Zhejiang 311300, China.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen University, 3688 Nanhai Avenue, Shenzhen 518060, China.
authors.forename: Xuechang
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1558-9423
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: HKU-Zhejiang Institute of Research and Innovation (HKU-ZIRI), Hangzhou, Zhejiang 311300, China.|Guangdong Key Laboratory for Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen University, 3688 Nanhai Avenue, Shenzhen 518060, China.
authors.forename: Tiantian
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, the University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China.|HKU-Zhejiang Institute of Research and Innovation (HKU-ZIRI), Hangzhou, Zhejiang 311300, China.
authors.forename: Liqiu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D002623:Chemistry Techniques, Analytical / Q000379:methods*; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D013499:Surface Properties; D017155:Wettability