Journal
ADVANCED SCIENCE
Volume 8, Issue 13, Pages -Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/advs.202100408
Keywords
acoustofluidics; digital fluidics; droplets; nanofluidics; surface acoustic wave
Categories
Funding
- University of California
- National Science Foundation [ECCS-1542148]
- W.M. Keck Foundation
- Office of Naval Research [12368098]
- NANO3 facility at UC San Diego
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Manipulation and mixing of fluids and colloids at the nanoscale is challenging due to the dominance of surface and viscous forces, but the use of megahertz (MHz)-order vibration in microfluidics has significantly advanced these capabilities. By discovering new regimes of acoustic wave interaction with small water droplets, manipulation and splitting of fluid droplets has been successfully achieved in fully transparent, high-aspect ratio nanoslit channels.
Controllable manipulation and effective mixing of fluids and colloids at the nanoscale is made exceptionally difficult by the dominance of surface and viscous forces. The use of megahertz (MHz)-order vibration has dramatically expanded in microfluidics, enabling fluid manipulation, atomization, and microscale particle and cell separation. Even more powerful results are found at the nanoscale, with the key discovery of new regimes of acoustic wave interaction with 200 fL droplets of deionized water. It is shown that 40 MHz-order surface acoustic waves can manipulate such droplets within fully transparent, high-aspect ratio, 100 nm tall, 20-130 micron wide, 5-mm long nanoslit channels. By forming traps as locally widened regions along such a channel, individual fluid droplets may be propelled from one trap to the next, split between them, mixed, and merged. A simple theory is provided to describe the mechanisms of droplet transport and splitting.
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