Fig. 1: Fabrication and mechanically controlled droplet transport.
From: Dynamic manipulation of droplets using mechanically tunable microtextured chemical gradients
a Schematic illustrating the process for fabricating chemical gradients on films with mechanically tunable surface microtextures (wrinkles) and their use in mechano-activated droplet transport. b The theoretical and experimentally measured wrinkle amplitudes. Insets: optical micrographs of the surface topography at εc = 0, 0.10, and 0.20 respectively, (scale bars = 200 µm). (N = 30 for each data point, data reported as \(\bar{x}\) ± s where \(\bar{x}\) is the mean and s is the standard deviation). c Surface roughness of the microtextured gradients at increasing magnitudes of compressive strain (εc). (N = 5 for each data point, data reported as \(\bar{x}\) ± s where \(\bar{x}\) is the mean and s is the standard deviation). d Variation in the measured contact angle (θ) as a function of position for an uncompressed PDMS film. Inset: The contact angle variation for the linear portion of the gradient. e Transport velocity of 3 µL H2O droplets on the microtextured gradients at increasing magnitudes of compressive strain. (N = 5 for each data point, data reported as \(\bar{x}\) ± s where \(\bar{x}\) is the mean and s is the standard deviation).
