Influence of the liquid layer thickness on the growth of droplets controlled by the thermal action of laser radiation

We have studied the growth of droplets in a thin layer of aqueous ethanol solution under conditions of the solutocapillary convective flow controlled by a laser beam. It is established that, with increasing layer thickness, the time necessary for the formation of a droplet separated from the layer increases, while the time required for the droplet to reach its maximum possible diameter (determined by the criteria of stability) decreases. In the initial stage of droplet formation, the diameter exhibits some decrease related to a short-term increase in the solvent evaporation rate.     

Electrical control of individual droplet breaking and droplet contents extraction

The controllable extraction of the contents from an individual droplet is very important for the analysis and further processing of droplets. Most of the available methods lack the control and flexibility over the extraction of droplet contents. Here, we present a novel electrical-based method that can selectively break a droplet and extract its contents into aqueous buffer in a controllable manner on a microfluidic device. The device consisted of two layers, in which the top layer was modified to be hydrophobic for droplet generation and the bottom layer modified to be hydrophilic for maintaining aqueous buffer. A stable oil/water interface was formed at the intersection of the two layers where the oil and aqueous buffer met. When a droplet flew through the oil/water interface, a voltage was applied in the aqueous buffer. The generated electro-osmotic flow in the aqueous buffer and the electric field facilitated the breaking of the water/oil interface between the droplet and aqueous buffer, promoting the breaking of the droplet and a transient coalescence of the droplet with aqueous buffer. During the transient coalescence, droplet contents could be extracted into aqueous buffer. The amount of the droplet contents extracted into the aqueous buffer could be controlled by varying the strength of the electric field, and the droplet still existed and could be further processed after complete extraction of the droplet contents. This method could be used for droplet analysis and may provide a way to perform complex fluid handling in a droplet.     

Highly efficient liquid droplet manipulation via human-motion-induced direct charge injection

The current electrowetting mechanisms show a low efficiency, although manipulating liquid droplets is essential to biological and chemical fields. Herein, we propose a highly efficient droplet manipulating method using direct charge injection (DCI) via human motion induced triboelectricity. A triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is used to provide both the charges and strong electric fields to drive the movement of liquid droplets. Using this method, the charge quantity and average velocity of the droplet (10 μL) reach 0.25 nC and 255 mm s⁻¹, respectively, over 6 times higher than those of traditional methods (0.03 nC and 43.2 mm s⁻¹). Alternative charge injection was demonstrated to enable both reciprocating and jumping motions of the droplet. Finally, we also successfully devised and demonstrated a platform with versatile system-level functions including droplets transportation, positioning, merging, and cleaning. This work advances the current droplet manipulation field via introducing a compelling approach using human-motion-induced direct charge injection.     

Creating liquid droplets in gas bubbles by means of light beam controlled capillary convection

A new approach to obtaining liquid droplets for microfluidic devices is proposed. According to this method, a droplet with a volume of several tens of nanoliters is formed under the action of a light beam upon a film of wetting liquid surrounding an air bubble, which occurred within a thin layer of this liquid confined between two plates. The kinetics of growth of liquid droplets in air bubbles of various dimensions is studied, and the characteristic droplet size is estimated.     

Droplet-based microfluidic flow injection system with large-scale concentration gradient by a single nanoliter-scale injection for enzyme inhibition assay

We described a microfluidic chip-based system capable of generating droplet array with a large scale concentration gradient by coupling flow injection gradient technique with droplet-based microfluidics. Multiple modules including sample injection, sample dispersion, gradient generation, droplet formation, mixing of sample and reagents, and online reaction within the droplets were integrated into the microchip. In the system, nanoliter-scale sample solution was automatically injected into the chip under valveless flow injection analysis mode. The sample zone was first dispersed in the microchannel to form a concentration gradient along the axial direction of the microchannel and then segmented into a linear array of droplets by immiscible oil phase. With the segmentation and protection of the oil phase, the concentration gradient profile of the sample was preserved in the droplet array with high fidelity. With a single injection of 16 nL of sample solution, an array of droplets with concentration gradient spanning 3-4 orders of magnitude could be generated. The present system was applied in the enzyme inhibition assay of β-galactosidase to preliminarily demonstrate its potential in high throughput drug screening. With a single injection of 16 nL of inhibitor solution, more than 240 in-droplet enzyme inhibition reactions with different inhibitor concentrations could be performed with an analysis time of 2.5 min. Compared with multiwell plate-based screening systems, the inhibitor consumption was reduced 1000-fold.     

Optical patternation: a technique for three-dimensional aerosol diagnostics

A novel technique based on optical patternation is described for three-dimensional diagnostic studies of aerosols used in analytical spectroscopies. The aerosol is illuminated with a thin laser light sheet to capture images of the fluorescence and Lorenz-Mie light-scattering signals from the aerosol field with a charge-coupled detector. These measurements allow for the rapid and nonintrusive elucidation of two-dimensional spray structures, planar mass distributions, and spatial droplet size distributions. The ratio of the fluorescence image to the Lorenz-Mie image is then utilized to construct a spatially resolved map of the volume-to-surface area mean of the aerosol (Sauter mean diameter). Three-dimensional maps of spray structure, mass distribution, and droplet size distribution are obtained for the entire aerosol field by image stacking. The technique is applied to the measurement of the droplet size over the aerosol field at distances of 5-30 mm from the nebulizer tip where droplet sizes ranged from 6 to 12 microm for a direct injection high efficiency nebulizer used in inductively coupled plasma spectrometries.     

Mechanism of stabilization of location of a droplet cluster above the liquid-gas interface

We studied the influence of sizes of droplets, forming the ??droplet cluster?? dissipative structure, on their levitation height in the vapor-air flow, which appears when free surface of horizontal water layer is locally heated. A sharp decrease in the velocity of the vapor-air flow takes place at a distance from the surface comparable with the droplet diameter. Allowing for the aerodynamic nature of the droplet levitation, this peculiarity of the flow determines the high stability of location of the droplet cluster above the interface. Existence of droplets that are anomalously heavy in the slope of the Stokes levitation mechanism is described.     

Microstructure Evolution of Cu-Pb Monotectic Alloys Processed in Drop Tube

Rapid solidification of Cu-Pb monotectic alloys has been accomplished during free fall in a 3m drop tube.Both macrosegregated and uniformly dispersed structures are observed in Cu-40wt pct Pb alloy droplets,whereas droplets of composition Cu-64wt pct Pb exhibit only macrosegregation morphologies.The microstructures are strongly dependent on droplet size.The higher undercooling tends to facilitate liquid phase separation and results in more extensive macrosegregation in smaller droplets.There exists a pronounced tendency for the Pb-rich liquid to occupy the surface of the droplets of both compositions,resulting from the quite lower surface tension of the Pb-rich phase and cauing a Pb-rich layer at the surface of the solidified droplet.The nucleation of monotectic cells in the Cu-40 wt pct Pb droplets with dispersed structures preferentially occurs at the droplet surface.A single nucleation event takes place more frequently as droplet size is reduced.     

An experimental and theoretical investigation of surface roughness of poly-jet printed parts

The present study has attempted to investigate and model surface roughness on parts printed using a poly-jet additive manufacturing system. Initially the study investigated the effect of layer thickness, local surface orientation and finish type on surface roughness in poly-jet printed parts. The study shows that the surface orientation and finish type are the major factors affecting surface roughness of poly-jet parts. Then a detailed experimental study was conducted by varying surface orientation in very close intervals to obtain the surface roughness distribution. The study reveals that surface roughness distribution for poly-jet parts is different from that obtained for parts made by other additive manufacturing processes. A detailed experimental and theoretical analysis of droplet geometry, as formed by the jetting process, and its effect on the edge profile of the polymerised layer is presented. A surface roughness prediction model is proposed based on these studies and validated using profilometric measurements.     

A study on liquid-liquid distribution based on single picoliter droplets and in situ electrochemical measurements

A microelectrode technique combined with the microcapillary injection/manipulation of a single organic droplet in water was developed. The technique was applied to the study of the distribution of a ferrocene derivative across a single-picoliter-nitrobenzene-droplet/water interface and to the simultaneous in situ electrochemical determination of the distributed solute in the picomole-femtomole range. The liquid-liquid distribution processes were discussed in terms of droplet size and solute concentration (in water) dependencies of the interfacial mass transfer rate.     

Simultaneous determination of size and wavelength-dependent refractive indices of thin-layered droplets from optical resonances

A technique for determining the size and wavelength-dependent refractive indices of a droplet coated with a thin layer is presented. The existence of a layer on the droplet is identified by a procedure that involves separate alignments of independently measured TE- and TM-mode resonances with computed homogeneous-sphere resonances. The procedure also yields the mode and the order numbers associated with the measured resonances. The observed resonances are then aligned with layered-sphere resonances of the same mode and order numbers to determine the core radius, layer thickness, and constants of core and shell dispersion formulas that minimize the difference between the observed and the calculated positions of resonances. The technique has been tested with synthetic data with various levels of random errors as well as with experimental data from two droplets under identical conditions. The results show that the core radius, layer thickness, and core and layer refractive indices can be determined with relative errors of 3.5 × 10(-4), 4.5 × 10(-2), 2.3 × 10(-4), and 4.4 × 10(-3), respectively, with the technique.     

Droplet Image Feedback Control System in Evaporation Experiment

In order to realize the steady-state droplet evaporation, image feedback control system is designed based on DSP. The system has three main functions: to capture and store droplet images during the experiment; to calculate droplet geometrical and physical parameters such as volume, surface area, surface tension and evaporation velocity at a high-precision level; to keep the droplet volume constant. The DSP can drive an injection controller with the PID control to inject liquid so as to keep the droplet volume constant. The evaporation velocity of droplet can be calculated by measuring the injected volume during the evaporation. The structure of hardware and software of the control system, key processing methods such as contour fitting and experimental results are described.     

Surfactant-driven motion and splitting of droplets on a substrate

A theoretical and computational model is presented to predict the motion of a small sessile liquid droplet, lying on a solid substrate including surfactant effects. The model, as formulated, consists of coupled partial differential equations in space and time, and several auxilliary relationships. The validity of the long-wave, or ‘lubrication’ approximation is assumed. It is shown that there are circumstances where surfactant injection or production will cause the droplet to split into two daughter droplets. It is conjectured that the results are relevant to basic mechanisms involved in biological cell division (cytokinesis). It is also demonstrated that motion of a droplet, analogous to the motility of a cell, can be produced by surfactant addition. Computed examples are given here, in both two and three space dimensions. Approximate energy requirements are also calculated for these processes. These are found to be suitably small.     

Effects of injection pressure difference on droplet size distribution and spray cone angle in spray cooling of liquid nitrogen

Spray cooling with liquid nitrogen as the working fluid has been widely employed in a plenty of fields requiring cooling at cryogenic temperature, such as the cryogenic wind tunnels and cooling super-conducting magnets. In this study, we built a liquid nitrogen spray system and experimentally investigated the influence of injection pressure difference on the droplet size distribution and the spray cone angle. The measurements using particle size analyser show increasing the injection pressure difference improves the atomization, as indicated by the homogenization and reduction of the droplet size. The initial spray cone angle is insensitive to the injection pressure difference. However, the far-field spray cone angle decreases dramatically with increasing the injection pressure difference. The results could enrich our knowledge of spray cooling of cryogenic fluids and benefit the design of cryogenic spray cooling systems.     

Experimental investigation on the effect of liquid injection by multiple orifices in the formation of droplets in a Venturi scrubber

Venturi scrubbers are widely utilized in gas cleaning. The cleansing elements in these scrubbers are droplets formed from the atomization of a liquid into a dust-laden gas. In industrial scrubbers, this liquid is injected through several orifices so that the cloud of droplets can be evenly distributed throughout the duct. The interaction between droplets when injected through many orifices, where opposite clouds of atomized liquid can reach each other, is to be expected. This work presents experimental measurements of droplet size measured in situ and the evidence of cloud interaction within a Venturi scrubber operating with multi-orifice jet injection. The influence of gas velocity, liquid flow rate and droplet size variation in the axial position after the point of the injection of the liquid were also evaluated for the different injection configurations. The experimental results showed that an increase in the liquid flow rate generated greater interaction between jets. The number of orifices had a significant influence on droplet size. In general, the increase in the velocity of the liquid jet and in the gas velocity favored the atomization process by reducing the size of the droplets.     

A microfabricated nanocalorimeter: design, characterization, and chemical calibration

A microfabricated titration calorimeter having nanowatt sensitivity is presented. The device is achieved by modifying a commercial, suspended-membrane, thin-film thermopile infrared sensor. Chemical reactions are studied by placing a 50.0 nL droplet of one reagent directly on the sensor and injecting nanoliter droplets of a second reagent through a micropipette by means of a pressure-driven droplet injector with 1% reliability in volume delivery. External thermal noise is minimized by a two-layer thermal shielding system. Evaporation is prevented by positioning the micropipette through a tiny hole in a cover glass, sealed by a drop of oil. The device is calibrated using two acid-base reactions: H2SO4 + HEPES buffer, and NaOH + HCl. The measured power sensitivity is 2.90(4) V/W, giving a detection limit of 22 nW. The 1/e time constant for a single injection is 1.1 s. The day-to-day power sensitivity is reproducible to approximately 2%. A computational model of the sensor reproduces the power sensitivity within 10% and the time constant within 20%. For a 50 nL sample and 0.8-1.5 nL titrant injection volumes, the heat uncertainty of 44 nJ corresponds to a 3sigma detection limit of 132 nJ, or the binding energy associated with 2.9 pM of IgG-protein A complex.     

The flow of liquid past a plate with boiling and injection of gas

A classical model boundary layer problem is considered for the flow of liquid past a plate in view of injection of a vapor-gas mixture from its surface. The obtained self-similar solutions enable one to estimate the typical values of thickness of the vapor-gas layer, the value of heat-transfer coefficient as a function of temperature of liquid, intensity of injection and composition of mixture being injected, and the velocity of flow past the plate. In addition, the problem is considered of reducing the hydrodynamic drag owing to vapor and vapor-gas “lubrication” because of boiling of liquid and injection of vapor-gas mixture from the plate surface. The possibility is analyzed of the emergence of vapor film due to viscous friction forces in the case where the liquid is in the vicinity of the boiling point.     

Mosaic Patterned Surfaces toward Generating Hardly-Volatile Capsular Droplet Arrays for High-Precision Droplet-Based Storage and Detection (Small 14/2023)

Precise detection involving droplets based on functional surfaces is promising for the parallelization and miniaturization of platforms and is significant in epidemic investigation, analyte recognition, environmental simulation, combinatorial chemistry, etc. However, a challenging and considerable task is obtaining mutually independent droplet arrays without cross-contamination and simultaneously avoiding droplet evaporation-caused quick reagent loss, inaccuracy, and failure. Herein, a strategy to generate mutually independent and hardly-volatile capsular droplet arrays using innovative mosaic patterned surfaces is developed. The evaporation suppression of the capsular droplet arrays is 1712 times higher than the naked droplet. The high evaporation suppression of the capsular droplet arrays on the surfaces is attributed to synergistic blocking of the upper oil and bottom mosaic gasproof layer. The scale-up of the capsular droplet arrays, the flexibility in shape, size, component (including aqueous, colloidal, acid, and alkali solutions), liquid volume, and the high-precision hazardous substance testing proves the concept's high compatibility and practicability. The mutually independent capsular droplet arrays with amazingly high evaporation suppression are essential for the new generation of high-performance open-surface microfluidic chips used in COVID-19 diagnosis and investigation, primary screening, in vitro enzyme reactions, environmental monitoring, nanomaterial synthesis, etc.     

Observation of liquid hydrogen jet on flashing and evaporation characteristics

The evaporation speed of liquid hydrogen jet has been measured using high speed CCD camera. In the evaporation process the diameter of injected liquid hydrogen droplet plays important role. The experimental parameters for injection condition had been selected such as injection temperature and size of injection hole diameter which influences injected diameter of liquid droplet. Liquid hydrogen had been injected into the spray chamber that was filled with gaseous helium at room temperature. The liquid hydrogen jet moves in the horizontal direction and the images of the evaporation processes had been acquired from the observation window using high speed CCD camera. With this method it has been shown that evaporation speed of liquid hydrogen is influenced by injection temperature and size of injection hole diameter.