Dispensing picoliter droplets on insulating substrates using liquid dielectrophoretic (DEP) microactuation

Liquid Dielectrophoretic (DEP) microactuation uses simple co-planar electrodes patterned on an insulating substrate to manipulate small volumes of liquid, including aqueous solutions. One important capability of DEP microfluidics is the dispensing of multiple droplets down to ∼10 picoliters starting directly from microliter-sized, sessile parent drops deposited manually on the substrate with a micropipette.; The dispensing process occurs in two subsequent stages. First, the electrodes are energized with AC, causing a narrow finger of liquid to flow from the parent droplet along the electrodes.{09}The motion of the leading edge of this finger seems to obey a square root law, that is, Z( t) ∝ t and when it gets to the end of the electrode structure, it stops. The finger (or rivulet) then remains in a hydrostatically stable configuration as long as the non-uniform field is present. Second, when the voltage is removed, capillary instability breaks up the rivulet into small droplets.; Periodic circular bumps patterned on the structure, when spaced according to the most unstable wavelength based on Rayleigh's inviscid theory for the cylindrical liquid jet, lead to the uniformly spaced and sized droplets. The effect of viscosity on droplet formation has been successfully accounted for with the modified Weber number. Experiments are also conducted to demonstrate a robust and reliable droplet dispensing mechanism with a trapped liquid design. Finally, some exploratory work has also been included with ionic salt solution.