Optical Trapping of a Single Chloroform Microdroplet in Water

Abstract

The study aims to optically trap a single chloroform (CHCl3) microdroplet in water using optical tweezers. The study also investigates the effect of the preparation procedure by sonication on the chloroform microdroplet size and its stability in water. This microdroplet can potentially act as a carrier containing active molecules and for sensor applications in a fluid. The chloroform is sonicated in deionized water to produce a chloroform microdroplet solution. The size of the resultant microdroplets is observed under the optical microscope. The stability of the chloroform microdroplets in water was studied by monitoring the absorption spectra within a specified duration of time for 1 hour. A single chloroform microdroplet in the water is trapped using a 976 nm continuous laser beam with optical tweezers. The finding shows that the average size of the produced chloroform microdroplets does not vary significantly when the sonication time is less than 10 minutes. Furthermore, Chloroform microdroplets in water were stable within an hour of monitoring time. This study confirmed that a single chloroform microdroplet could be stably trapped using optical tweezers. It implies that the chloroform can form stable microdroplets in water and can be optically trapped under a focused laser.