Geometrically Mediated Breakup of Drops in Microfluidic Devices

Link, Darren R.; Anna, Shelley L.; Weitz, David A.; Stone, Howard A.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.92.054503

Cited by 1,066 publications

(896 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The dotted line represents the predicted critical capillary number for isolated droplets in a four-roll mill. 19 The solid line represents the stability criterion for a droplet colliding at a junction given by Link et al 6 The inset shows a close-up view of the phase diagram at small aspect ratios to highlight the late coalescence behavior (C) that occurs near the critical conditions for coalescence.…”

Section: Operating Diagram For Droplet Collisions At a T-junctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 These advantages have been exploited in applications such as DNA analysis, 2 protein crystallization, 3 and other types of bio-analysis. 4 In order to realize successful droplet-based devices, multiple ''unit operations'' must be combined and integrated, including generation of droplets, 4,5 fission, 6 sorting, 7 and mixing within droplets. 1,7 In addition, the ability to merge two droplets with different contents is critical to the success of these devices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coalescence and splitting of confined droplets at microfluidic junctions

et al. 2009

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The ability to merge two droplets is an important component of droplet-based lab-on-a-chip devices, yet flow-induced coalescence is difficult to achieve due to long film drainage times compared with relatively short residence times. We examine droplet collisions at a simple microfluidic T-junction and characterize the response for a wide range of droplet sizes and speeds. We find that three primary responses occur, where coalescence occurs easily at low collision speeds, smaller droplets traveling faster slip past one another without coalescing, and larger and faster droplets can break one another into multiple segments. The critical capillary number for coalescence agrees well with previously reported scaling for isolated droplet pairs when local curvature and speed are taken into account. The critical capillary number for splitting of droplets agrees well with a previously reported stability condition for individual droplets stretching in an extensional flow. Quantifying the necessary conditions for coalescence and non-coalescence behavior should enable the informed design of lab on chip devices based on discrete liquid segments.

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Section: Operating Diagram For Droplet Collisions At a T-junctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coalescence and splitting of confined droplets at microfluidic junctions

et al. 2009

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“…Unequal droplet splitting may be achieved through passive techniques, for example by varying the downstream resistance to the flow in simple cases [10,20]. However, the optical actuation adds an active component to the control of each droplet.…”

Section: Drop Transport: Division and Sortingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, a drop may be formed with a known composition and volume [5,6,7] and transported by an inert fluid without loss of the solute species and without cross-contamination [8]. Furthermore, fusion of two drops containing two reactive species leads to the onset, on demand, of a reaction [9] whose product may be sampled by breaking the drop at a bifurcation [10]. Finally, logical operations can be performed on drops by sorting them based on a test of their contents, as they reach a bifurcation in the microchannel [11,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An optical toolbox for total control of droplet microfluidics

2007

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The use of microfluidic drops as microreactors hinges on the active control of certain fundamental operations, such as droplet formation, transport, division and fusion. Recent work has demonstrated that local heating from a focused laser can apply a thermocapillary force on a liquid interface sufficient to block the advance of a droplet in a microchannel (Baroud et al., Phys. Rev. E. V 75, p.046302). Here, we demonstrate the usefulness of this optical approach by implementing the operations mentioned above, without the need for any special microfabrication or moving parts. Building blocks such as a droplet valve, sorter, fuser, or divider are shown, as is the combination of a valve and fuser using a single laser spot.

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“…ref. 61 , a microfluidic design for droplet splitting was proposed, where a large post near the middle of a microfluidic channel was used to induce droplet fission. By adjusting the position of this post in the microchannel, the ratio of sizes of daughter droplets can be changed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfluidic manipulation of magnetic flux domains in type-I superconductors: droplet formation, fusion and fission

Berdiyorov

Miloševıć

Hernández-Nieves

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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The magnetic flux domains in the intermediate state of type-I superconductors are known to resemble fluid droplets, and their dynamics in applied electric current is often cartooned as a "dripping faucet". Here we show, using the time-depended Ginzburg-Landau simulations, that microfluidic principles hold also for the determination of the size of the magnetic flux-droplet as a function of the applied current, as well as for the merger or splitting of those droplets in the presence of the nanoengineered obstacles for droplet motion. Differently from fluids, the flux-droplets in superconductors are quantized and dissipative objects, and their pinning/depinning, nucleation, and splitting occur in a discretized form, all traceable in the voltage measured across the sample. At larger applied currents, we demonstrate how obstacles can cause branching of laminar flux streams or their transformation into mobile droplets, as readily observed in experiments.Moving superconducting vortices are known to be the main source for energy dissipation in current-carrying type-II superconductors, limiting their large scale energy-related applications. For that reason, much attention has been given in the past to hampering vortex motion by introducing arrays of artificial pinning centers in superconductors, nanoengineered in size and geometry for optimal vortex pinning and enhancement of maximal sustainable magnetic field and electric current in the superconducting state [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] . Pinning is also of importance in type-I superconductors, for example in defining the structure of the intermediate state (IS) 18,19 , which is a very rich study object and has received a revival of interest in recent years [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] . Contrary to type-II superconductors, the competition between the interface energy (that favors the formation of large normal domains) and the magnetic energy (that tends to form small normal domains) results in the formation of different spatially modulated IS structures in type-I superconductors 23,30 . There, flux tubes and lamellae are the most encountered shapes [18][19][20] , formation of which strongly depends on the size and shape of the samples [22][23][24] , as well as on the magnetic history of the system 18,19 .Unlike Abrikosov vortices in type-II superconductors, each carrying a single flux quantum Φ 0 = hc/2e 33,34 , flux droplets in type-I superconductors may contain hundreds of flux quanta and are considered as building blocks for the IS flux patterns 35,36 . When driven by applied current, these flux structures can undergo different dynamic phases, where the motion of droplets can be periodic (with single or multiple periods) as well as chaotic 21 . Recent numerical simulations revealed that type-I flux droplets are always decomposed into singly-quantized fluxoids during dynamic interactions, reaffirming that one flux quantum is the smallest and fundamental building block of the IS in type-I superconductors 25 . Stat...

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Geometrically Mediated Breakup of Drops in Microfluidic Devices

Cited by 1,066 publications

References 16 publications

Coalescence and splitting of confined droplets at microfluidic junctions

Coalescence and splitting of confined droplets at microfluidic junctions

An optical toolbox for total control of droplet microfluidics

Microfluidic manipulation of magnetic flux domains in type-I superconductors: droplet formation, fusion and fission

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