skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Length scale selects directionality of droplets on vibrating pillar ratchet

Journal Article · · Advanced Materials Interfaces
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)

Directional control of droplet motion at room temperature is of interest for applications such as microfluidic devices, self-cleaning coatings, and directional adhesives. Here, arrays of tilted pillars ranging in height from the nanoscale to the microscale are used as structural ratchets to directionally transport water at room temperature. Water droplets deposited on vibrating chips with a nanostructured ratchet move preferentially in the direction of the feature tilt while the opposite directionality is observed in the case of microstructured ratchets. This remarkable switch in directionality is consistent with changes in the contact angle hysteresis. To glean further insights into the length scale dependent asymmetric contact angle hysteresis, the contact lines formed by a nonvolatile room temperature ionic liquid placed onto the tilted pillar arrays were visualized and analyzed in situ in a scanning electron microscope. As a result, the ability to tune droplet directionality by merely changing the length scale of surface features all etched at the same tilt angle would be a versatile tool for manipulating multiphase flows and for selecting droplet directionality in other lap-on-chip applications.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1214464
Journal Information:
Advanced Materials Interfaces, Vol. 1, Issue 9; ISSN 2196-7350
Publisher:
Wiley-VCH
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (47)

Directional Transport of Polymer Sheet and a Microsphere by a Rationally Aligned Nanowire Array journal January 2012
Anisotropic wetting and superhydrophobicity on holographically featured 3D nanostructured surfaces journal January 2012
An engineered anisotropic nanofilm with unidirectional wetting properties journal October 2010
Contact Angle Hysteresis Explained journal July 2006
Design and Fabrication of Micro-textures for Inducing a Superhydrophobic Behavior on Hydrophilic Materials journal April 2007
Sub-10 nm structures on silicon by thermal dewetting of platinum journal November 2010
Surface Tension Transport of Prey by Feeding Shorebirds: The Capillary Ratchet journal May 2008
Superhydrophobic Tracks for Low-Friction, Guided Transport of Water Droplets journal April 2011
Stroke Asymmetry of Tilted Superhydrophobic Ion Track Textures journal May 2010
Controlling Liquid Drops with Texture Ratchets journal February 2012
Directional shedding-off of water on natural/bio-mimetic taper-ratchet array surfaces journal January 2012
Physical Properties of Pure 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium Ethylsulfate and Its Binary Mixtures with Ethanol and Water at Several Temperatures journal November 2006
Ratchetlike Motion of a Shaken Drop journal May 2009
Tunable Anisotropic Wettability of Rice Leaf-Like Wavy Surfaces journal September 2012
How to Make Water Run Uphill journal June 1992
Moving droplets on asymmetrically structured surfaces journal September 1999
Self-similarity of contact line depinning from textured surfaces journal February 2013
Adhesive force of a single gecko foot-hair journal June 2000
Effect of Surface Texturing on Superoleophobicity, Contact Angle Hysteresis, and “Robustness” journal October 2012
Dynamic Defrosting on Nanostructured Superhydrophobic Surfaces journal July 2013
Transport of a soft cargo on a nanoscale ratchet journal August 2011
Contact angle hysteresis origins: Investigation on super-omniphobic surfaces journal January 2011
Thermocapillary actuation of droplets on chemically patterned surfaces by programmable microheater arrays journal December 2003
Thermal dewetting of Pt thin film: Etch-masks for the fabrication of semiconductor nanostructures journal March 2007
Ratchet-like topological structures for the control of microdrops journal August 2002
Self-Propelled Leidenfrost Droplets journal April 2006
Experimental study of the density and viscosity of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethyl sulfate journal April 2012
Multiscale Roughness and Stability of Superhydrophobic Biomimetic Interfaces journal March 2007
Asymmetric Ratchet Effect for Directional Transport of Fog Drops on Static and Dynamic Butterfly Wings journal January 2014
Directional water collection on wetted spider silk journal February 2010
Directional adhesion of superhydrophobic butterfly wings journal January 2007
Zipping Effect on Omniphobic Surfaces for Controlled Deposition of Minute Amounts of Fluid or Colloids journal February 2012
Directional Oil Sliding Surfaces with Hierarchical Anisotropic Groove Microstructures journal August 2013
Designing Superoleophobic Surfaces journal December 2007
Drops onto gradients of texture journal August 2009
Contact Angle Hysteresis on Superhydrophobic Surfaces: An Ionic Liquid Probe Fluid Offers Mechanistic Insight journal March 2011
Tuning Drop Motion by Chemical Patterning of Surfaces journal February 2014
Controlling Liquid Spreading Using Microfabricated Undercut Edges journal March 2013
Directing Droplets Using Microstructured Surfaces journal July 2006
Lithography-free approach to highly efficient, scalable SERS substrates based on disordered clusters of disc-on-pillar structures journal November 2013
Advancing and Receding Motion of Droplets on Ultrahydrophobic Post Surfaces journal August 2006
Contact Angle Hysteresis Generated by Strong Dilute Defects journal March 2009
Ionic Liquids Are Useful Contact Angle Probe Fluids journal April 2007
Water transport mechanism through open capillaries analyzed by direct surface modifications on biological surfaces journal October 2013
Reversible Electrowetting of Vertically Aligned Superhydrophobic Carbon Nanofibers journal October 2006
Wettability patterning for high-rate, pumpless fluid transport on open, non-planar microfluidic platforms journal January 2014
Asymmetric Wettability of Nanostructures Directs Leidenfrost Droplets journal December 2013