Surface charge printing for programmed droplet transport

The directed, long-range and self-propelled transport of droplets on solid surfaces is crucial for many applications from water harvesting to bio-analysis 1 – 9 . Typically, preferential transport is achieved by topographic or chemical modulation of surface wetting gradients that break the asymmetri...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature materials 2019-09, Vol.18 (9), p.936-941
Main Authors: Sun, Qiangqiang, Wang, Dehui, Li, Yanan, Zhang, Jiahui, Ye, Shuji, Cui, Jiaxi, Chen, Longquan, Wang, Zuankai, Butt, Hans-Jürgen, Vollmer, Doris, Deng, Xu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/166/988
639/301/923/1030
639/766/189
Biomaterials
Charge density
Chemistry and Materials Science
Condensed Matter Physics
Density gradients
Droplets
Glass substrates
Laboratories
Letter
Materials Science
Nanotechnology
Optical and Electronic Materials
Organic chemistry
Physicists
Solid surfaces
Substrates
Surface charge
Topography
Transport
Velocity
Water
Water drops
Water harvesting
Wetting
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The directed, long-range and self-propelled transport of droplets on solid surfaces is crucial for many applications from water harvesting to bio-analysis 1 – 9 . Typically, preferential transport is achieved by topographic or chemical modulation of surface wetting gradients that break the asymmetric contact line and overcome the resistance force to move droplets along a particular direction 10 – 16 . Nonetheless, despite extensive progress, directional droplet transport is limited to low transport velocity or short transport distance. Here we report the high-velocity and ultralong transport of droplets elicited by surface charge density gradients printed on diverse substrates. We leverage the facile water droplet printing on superamphiphobic surfaces to create rewritable surface charge density gradients that stimulate droplet propulsion under ambient conditions 17 and without the need for additional energy input. Our strategy provides a platform for programming the transport of droplets on flat, flexible and vertical surfaces that may be valuable for applications requiring a controlled movement of droplets 17 – 19 . Rewritable surface charge density gradients enable the direct, high-speed and long-distance transport of droplets on distinct surfaces without the need of additional energy input.
ISSN:1476-1122
1476-4660
DOI:10.1038/s41563-019-0440-2