ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
·
2024
·
IF 18.5
Zihao Zhao,Shiping He,Anhui Yu,Shaochen Wang,Huayang Zhang,Zhiguang Guo
The flexible manipulation and directional transport of fluids, including droplets and bubbles, are foundational to numerous applications. Fluid manipulation based on external field stimulation and fixed structures has a wide range of applications in both natural and artificial materials, such as water collection, water electrolysis, droplet energy collection, medical diagnosis, etc. However, droplets and bubbles exhibit opposite wettability, and the inherent opposition between hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity presents a significant challenge in developing a manipulation system capable of manipulating both droplets and bubbles. Here, inspired by multiple natural organisms, a magnetic-actuated Janus spherical robot with switchable wettability as the driving core of droplets or bubbles, and a solid-like slippery surface as the manipulation platform is proposed, which achieves the dual programmable manipulation of droplets and bubbles. Furthermore, the Janus robot can achieve the transition from superhydrophobic to superhydrophilic within 8 min under UV light. It is noteworthy that the Janus robot demonstrates superior capabilities in the transport speed and carrier volume of liquid droplets (bubbles), which can reach 18 (13) cm s −1 and 800 (500) µL, respectively. This strategy provides a novel and reliable method for the automated manipulation of droplets and bubbles and broadens their applications.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
微流控技术
·
生物医学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
The Innovation
·
2024
·
IF 33.2
Fang Wang,Cong Liu,Zhengjin Dai,Weizhong Xu,Xinyue Ma,Yufeng Gao,Xuewu Ge,Wei Zheng,Xuemin Du
Optical tweezers and related techniques offer extraordinary opportunities for research and applications in physical, biological, and medical fields. However, certain critical requirements, such as high-intensity laser beams, sophisticated electrode designs, additional electric sources, or low-conductive media, significantly impede their flexibility and adaptability, thus hindering their practical applications. Here, we report innovative photopyroelectric tweezers (PPT) that combine the advantages of light and electric field by utilizing a rationally designed photopyroelectric substrate with efficient and durable photo-induced surface charge-generation capability, enabling diverse manipulation in various working scenarios. These PPTs allow for remote and programmable manipulation of objects with diverse materials (polymer, inorganic, and metal), different phases (bubble, liquid, and solid), and various geometries (sphere, cuboid, and wire). Furthermore, the PPT is not only adaptable to high-conductivity media but also applicable to both portable macroscopic manipulation platforms and microscopic manipulation systems, enabling cross-scale manipulations for solid objects, liquid droplets, and biological samples. The high-level flexibility and adaptability of the PPT extend to broad applications in manipulating hydrogel robots, sorting particles, assembling cells, and stimulating cells. By surpassing the limitations of conventional tweezers, the PPT bridges the gap between macroscopic and microscopic manipulations, offering a revolutionary tool in robotics, colloidal science, biomedical fields, and beyond.
研究领域:
机器人技术
·
胶体科学
·
生物医学工程
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材料科学
·
光学
·
微流控学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
·
2024
·
IF 13.3
Konghua Yang,Shiliang Chen,Yibin Liu,Yunhong Liang,Zhihui Zhang,Chunbao Liu
Achieving precise and rapid droplets manipulation in versatile directions transport remains a considerable challenge, however adhesion switchable transitions deemed to be rather serviceable. Here, a double-sided microplate array (DMPA) with bio-inspired Janus surfaces, is proposed to fulfill adjustable adhesion through surface wettability switching and microplate dynamic deformation, thereby executing the droplet multi-dimensional manipulation in response to dynamic magnetic field. The triple-coupled bio-inspired Janus surfaces are newly designed with a convex hull and striped structure respectively, inspired by the respiratory ciliary motion and surface properties of lotus and rice leaves. Leveraging variation in superhydrophobicity and low adhesion of convex hull side on Janus surface, diverse droplet directional transports are achieved in plane, such as high-speed horizontal transport (120 mm/s and 500 µL), anti-gravitational climbing (inclined by 15°), and selective droplet orientation. The adhesion switchable transition of surface striped structure on other side is predominated by solid–liquid contact lines evolution resulting from microplate bending deformation, realizing droplet capture/release for long-distance multi-dimensional transport. Concurrently, a magnetic-responsive droplet switch is developed based on multi-directional droplet manipulation, demonstrating enormous potential for practical application.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
生物医学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Optical Materials Express
·
2020
·Vol. 11
·期 1
·171-179
·
IF 3.064
Shi-Tong Xu,Shi-Tong Xu,Fei Fan,Shu Chen,Yanzhao Xing,Yuebo Gao,Huixin Li,Guangcheng Niu,Sheng-Jiang Chang,Sheng-Jiang Chang,Sheng-Jiang Chang
In this work, a new strategy was proposed for active control of mm-thick liquid crystals (LC) cell to realize the polarization manipulation in terahertz (THz) regime, which through the electric field control and static magnetic field pre-anchoring. The LC cell was fabricated by a nematic 5CB LC and two silica substrates that were coated with the graphite layer as the transparent electrode. Under the pre-anchoring of the static magnetic field, the optical axis of LC can be precisely controlled by the variable electric field. By using a THz-TDS with a wire grid polarizer, the output THz polarization from the LC cell can be deduced from the amplitude and phase shift of ±45° components. Here, we systematically analyzed three different outfield configurations. Only if the ±45° components that output from the polarizer have phase shifts, can the polarization state conversion be realized. The results show that the linear to circular or the cross-polarization conversion were realized under the specific electric field. This work provides a new approach for the thick-LC layer anchoring and orientation control, and also the tunable polarization manipulation of THz LC devices.
研究领域:
光学
·
材料科学
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
·
2021
·
IF 13.273
Xing Han,Xin Tang,Rifei Chen,Wei Li,Pingan Zhu,Liqiu Wang
We present a citrus-peel-like micro-cavity structure for the design of durable Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces (SLIPSs). Owing to the re-entrant and enclosed nature of micro-cavity, lubricant oils can be stabilized by mitigating mass loss resulting from liquid displacement and shear drainage, respectively. Citrus-peel-like micro-cavity SLIPS displays two orders of magnitude enhancement in durability in the droplet-sliding test when compared with micro-pillar SLIPS and smooth lubricant surface. We demonstrated precise droplet manipulation without liquid loss and cross-contamination by harnessing the Marangoni effect with photo-thermal control. Cavity-smooth SLIPS with large adhesion contrast was patterned to initiate multiple droplet coalescences for on-demand neutralization reaction. The citrus-peel-like micro-cavity SLIPS would be beneficial to various applications, such as multi-step chemical reactions and bio-detections that require loss-free, contamination-free, and programmable droplet manipulation.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
表面工程
·
化学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Microsystems & Nanoengineering
·
2024
·Vol. 10
·期 1
·1-9
·
IF 7.3
Li Fuwang,Wei Jian,Qin Xiaomei,Chen Xue,Chen Dawei,Zhang Wentao,Han Jiaguang,Yuan Libo,Deng Hongchang
Field-controlled micromanipulation represents a pivotal technique for handling microparticles, yet conventional methods often risk physical damage to targets. Here, we discovered a completely new mechanism for true noncontact manipulation through photothermal effects, called thermal-optical tweezers. We employ a laser self-assembly photothermal waveguide (PTW) for dynamic microparticle manipulation. This waveguide demonstrates superior photothermal conversion and precision control, generating a nonisothermal temperature field. The interaction of thermal convection and thermophoresis within this field creates a microfluidic potential well, enabling noncontact and nondestructive particle manipulation. By varying the path of PTWs in lithography and manipulating laser loading modes, diverse manipulation strategies, such as Z-shaped migration, periodic oscillation, and directional transport, are achievable. Our innovative noninvasive micromanipulation technology minimizes not only physical damage to target objects but also enables precise and diverse manipulation of micro entities, opening up new avenues for the photothermal control of cells and biomolecules.
研究领域:
生物物理学
·
光学工程
·
细胞生物学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
Advanced Optical Materials
·
2021
·Vol. 10
·期 5
·2102512
·
IF 9.926
Ping Chen,Xin Feng,Dongyan Li,Lejing Pi,Zexin Li,Xiang Xu,Haoyun Wang,Xing Zhou,Tianyou Zhai
Light manipulation has promoted applications in all-optical processing. 2D anisotropic rare earth (RE) materials are promising for light modulation to realize information transmission and encryption due to the unique optical behaviors of RE ions. Here, image transmission and encryption have been realized by using 2D anisotropic RE material Eu 2 O 3 . The polarized photoluminescence (PL) of Eu 2 O 3 has been innovatively applied for information transmission by switching the on/off states. The opposite two modes of polarization-dependent PL have been applied to grayscale-resolved image transmission and encryption with high security. This novel approach, polarization manipulation on the PL of 2D anisotropic RE materials, will shed light on the development of information processing, all-optical switch, and all-optical computation.
研究领域:
光学
·
材料科学
·
信息处理
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE
·
2020
·
IF 6.182
Hanpeng Gao,Yan Liu,Guoyong Wang,Shuyi Li,Zhiwu Han,Luquan Ren
Smart surfaces that can manipulate droplets or fluids have attracted intense attention because of their essential application prospects. However, it is still a challenge to obtain multifunctional integrated metal platforms that can simultaneously manipulate water/oil droplets and water/oil fluids. Here, inspired by the structure and wettability of natural reed leaves and lotus leaves, dual biomimetic platforms with switchable and anisotropic/isotropic wettability were prepared on copper by laser processing, chemical etching, and mixed thiols modification. The wettability of the integrated platforms can respond to the change of external pH value and reversibly switch between superhydrophobicity and underwater superoleophobicity. The areas of “reed leaf” structure and “lotus leaf” structure on the biomimetic platform have anisotropic and isotropic wettability, respectively. Significantly, by rationally designing the distribution of bionic structures, the dual biomimetic platforms can simultaneously manipulate water/oil droplets and water/oil fluids. This work not only provides advanced integrated biomimetic platforms and interesting design strategies, but also has important reference value in the development of new metal microfluidic devices.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
生物学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Materials Horizons
·
2021
·Vol. 8
·期 11
·3063-3071
·
IF 13.266
Hongtai Ren,Hu Jin,Jian Shu,Jie Xie,Erlong Wang,Du-An Ge,Shi-Yang Tang,Xiangpeng Li,Weihua Li,Shiwu Zhang
The controlled actuation of liquid metal (LM) droplets has recently shown great potential in developing smart actuating systems for applications in robotics. However, there is a lack of a simple approach for the precise manipulation of multiple LM droplets in a 2D plane, which hinders the development of complex control over droplets for realizing useful robotic applications. To overcome this challenge, here, a versatile and powerful light-induced manipulation of LM droplets is presented. The key principle is to selectively activate phototransistors in an electrolyte using infrared laser beams to electrically control LM droplets via Marangoni forces. This approach shows the ability of inducing concurrent motion, splitting, and merging of multiple LM droplets simply using light without complex and bulky systems. Parameters affecting the manipulation of LM droplets are thoroughly investigated. Moreover, a vehicle carrier driven by wheels composed of multiple LM droplets for making a light-controlled relay is demonstrated. We believe such a light-induced control method for manipulating LM droplets has the potential for advancing the development of future field-programmable robotics and droplet-based soft collaborative robots.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
机器人学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
Nano Select
·
2020
·Vol. 2
·期 2
·338-345
·
IF 0
Dege Li,Bingfang Huang,Yi Cao,Molong Han,Xinlei Wu,Qiang Sun,Chi Ma,Lilong Zhao,Peng Liu,Chao Zheng,Hang Dong,Xiaolong Wang,Yonghong Liu,Yanzhen Zhang
The precise and effective generation and manipulation of micron-sized droplets is crucial for chemical and biological research and applications. Normally, droplets generation and manipulation are achieved by two separate devices/systems with their respective operation strategies. Pipette, inkjet nozzle, and microfluidic channels equipped with programed syringes are commonly used for droplets generation whereas the subsequent manipulation is normally achieved by leveraging of forces originating either from optical, electric, magnetic or acoustic field and the corresponding complicated devices. Here we report a new paradigm that can realize simultaneous droplets generation and manipulation in an immiscible liquid environment using only the confined interface vibration generated by the ordinary inkjet nozzle. Droplets, ranging from femtoliter to picoliter, can be generated and manipulated without interruption since they are actuated by the same nozzle. Our strategy provides a platform for precise generation and manipulating the micro-sized droplets that may be valuable for applications requiring simple setups and seamless connection between droplets generation and droplets manipulation.
研究领域:
生物医学工程
·
微流体技术
·
化学工程
✓ 已验证
DOI
Soft Matter
·
2024
·Vol. 20
·期 12
·2812-2822
·
IF 2.9
Long Jiao,Dingqiang Tan,Yanjun Hu,Yijing Yang,Qianqian Guo,Nan Zhou,Huaping Wu,Chen Chen,Xingang Zhao,Guohua Hu
The droplet lossless directional motion control on slippery surfaces holds immense promise for applications in microfluidic chips, hazardous substance detection, chemical dispensing, etc. However, a significant challenge in this domain lies in efficiently developing soft, slippery surfaces with large-range anisotropic wettability and compatibility for curved scenarios. This study addressed this challenge through a quick 3D printing-assisted method to produce soft, ridged-slippery surfaces (SRSSs) as the droplet manipulation platform. The SRSSs demonstrated substantial anisotropic rolling resistances, measuring 116.9 μN in the perpendicular direction and 7.7 μN in the parallel direction, exhibiting a ratio of 15.2. Combining several extents of anisotropic wettability on a soft substrate could realize diverse reagent manipulation functions. Furthermore, these SRSSs showcased high compatibility with various droplet constituents, impressive liquid impact resistance, self-repair capability, and mechanical durability and thermal durability, ensuring exceptional applicability. As proofs of concept, the SRSSs were successfully applied in droplet control and classification for heavy metal ion detection, mechanical arm-based droplet grab and release, and cross-species transport, showcasing their remarkable versatility, compatibility, and practicality in advanced droplet microfluidic chips and water harvesting applications.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
微流控技术
·
表面工程
✓ 已验证
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
LANGMUIR
·
2025
·
IF 3.9
Anhui Yu,Zhiguang Guo
Droplet manipulation on functional surfaces is an urgent problem to be solved. Fast and precise droplet manipulation plays an important role in many applications, such as microreactors and microfluidics. Although numerous techniques have been developed to manipulate droplets by injecting external stimuli, it remains a challenge to achieve high-precision, high-sensitivity, and fast droplet manipulation on smart, slippery response surfaces. Here, we report an intelligent slippery photopyroelectric response near-infrared-induced MXene-barium titanate/polyimide (SFMBPI) membrane. By using local near-infrared radiation (NIR), we can precisely control the droplet transport on the SFMBPI membrane, and SFMBPI uses electrospinning technology to better lock the dimethylsilicone oil, reducing the loss during the control process. Moreover, due to the presence of the pyroelectric layer, double external stimuli can be achieved. The thermal stimulation of the photothermal layer and the charge action of the pyroelectric layer make the manipulation of droplets on the SFMBPI surface more efficient and faster. Moreover, the experiment of negative gravity transport at an inclination angle of 6° demonstrates that the existence of the pyroelectric layer results in a greater driving force on the droplets, which can be more widely used. In addition, by inducing the direction of the NIR, programmable droplet transport and droplet merging can be achieved. Also, the SFMBPI membrane can be used for underwater bubble manipulation. This precise manipulation of droplets on the surface of SFMBPI membranes can be widely used in other fields, such as microfluidics.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
微流控技术
·
表面科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）