Elementary autonomous surface microfluidic devices based on laser-fabricated wetting gradient microtextures that drive directional water flows

Topography-dependent tuning of water wettability was achieved on a stainless steel surface textured by nanosecond-laser pulses at different laser fluences, with the minimal contribution of the surface chemical modification. Such differently-wet neighboring surface spots were demonstrated to drive an autonomous directional water flow. A series of elementary microfluidic devices based on the spatial wetting gradients were designed and tested as building blocks of green, energy-saving autonomous microfluidic circuits. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

Topography-dependent tuning of water wettability on a stainless steel surface was achieved through nanosecond-laser pulses at different fluences, with minimal contribution from surface chemical modification. Adjacent surface spots with different wettabilities were shown to drive autonomous directional water flow. A series of elementary microfluidic devices based on spatial wetting gradients were designed and tested as building blocks for green, energy-saving autonomous microfluidic circuits.