Excellent Liquid Unidirectional Transport Inner Tilted‐Sector Arrayed Tubes

Abstract

Liquid unidirectional transport exhibits critical applications from water harvesting to microfluidics. Despite extensive progress, implementation of liquid unidirectional transport that is not subjected to the liquid surface tension and injecting velocity also remains a great challenge. Here, a tilted‐sector arrayed tube for excellent liquid unidirectional transport is proposed that applies to a vast width domain of liquid surface tension and injecting velocity. In addition, the transport direction is abnormally against the tilted direction of structure, in stark contrast to the traditional understanding that is along tilted direction. This excellent and unique liquid unidirectional transport is caused by synergistic effects of tilted sectors and tube structures, which induce a unique 3D liquid propagation mode as well as a large Laplace pressure asymmetry between the front and rear sides of the liquid. Moreover, the antigravity climbing, circuit isolating, and chemical reaction controlling can be achieved based on the excellent liquid unidirectional transport. It is envisioned that the design can be extensively applied in microfluidics, lab‐on‐a‐chip devices, and biochemistry microreactors.

Advances in Directional Wetting Surfaces for Enhanced Fluid Control: A Comprehensive Review

“…3D liquid diodes, [ 38 ] incorporating additional driving force in the depth direction, exhibit promise for significantly improving liquid transmission capabilities. Furthermore, with a better understanding of liquid pinning, optimizing the asymmetric structures [ 80,81 ] or introducing innovative pinning structure designs [ 76a ] may further enhance the performance of liquid diodes with interesting liquid transport mechanisms using intriguing liquid diode structures. When designing such structures, as in previous studies, [ 1d,3b,10b,74 ] finding examples from natural surfaces can provide guidelines for achieving our objectives.…”