Using surface acoustic wave ͑SAW͒ to drive droplets on a piezoelectric chip is a distinctive microfluidic technique developed recently. In the previous research, uniform interdigital transducers ͑IDTs͒ were used to radiate SAW amplitude and move the droplets within the same delay line simultaneously. In this paper, we employ slanted finger interdigital transducers ͑SFITs͒ to replace uniform IDTs. The merit is that we can move individual droplets at will by varying the frequency. This is because SAW amplitude profile actuated by a SFIT is not uniform along the aperture. The position of the maximum amplitude can be changed by adjusting the input frequency. In addition, we apply the coupling-of-modes model to simulate the amplitude profile and the frequency response of SFITs. Since the transmitted SAW intensity is strongly attenuated by the liquid when SAW hits the droplet, we can use the measured frequency response to detect the position of the droplet and verify the validity of the proposed method; we fabricated a SFIT on an Y128X-LiNbO 3 substrate coated with hydrophobic film. The experimental results show good agreement with those predicted by the simulations. We note that the proposed method can further be used to construct a multichannel microfluidic chip.
Cobalt-mediated radical polymerization (CMRP) has enabled the polymerization of a wide range of monomers with predictable molecular parameters and well-defined compositions and architectures. However, the synthesis of hydrophilic polymers by CMRP directly in the aqueous phase is still challenging. Herein, a handy cobalt complex was developed to perform CMRP of N-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP), 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA), and N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMA) with linearly increased molecular weight, low polydispersity values, and smoothly shifted gel permeation chromatography (GPC) traces. The chain extensions of NVP, HEA, and DMA revealed the well chain-end fidelity for the synthesis of block copolymers. Moreover, the poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone)-block-poly(vinyl acetate) (PVP-b-PVAc) amphiphilic block copolymer colloidal solution was achieved directly in aqueous phase by cobalt-mediated radical polymerization-induced self-assembly (CMR-PISA), forming the nanoparticles consisting of a hydrophilic PVP corona and a hydrophobic PVAc core. This new mediator opens the opportunity for the synthesis of various hydrophilic (co)polymers in an environmentally friendly manner.
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