Picoliter Droplet Formation on Thin Optical Fiber Tips

Uemura, Suguru; Stjernström, Mårten; Sjödahl, Johan; Roeraade, Johan

doi:10.1021/la0613732

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…In a simple two‐step procedure, discrete small volumes (≈70 femtoliter) of different liquid inks were printed on a polymer surface by using initial droplets with volumes around 10 µL. Recently, Uemura et al65 employed a simple technique using thin optical fibers for picoliter droplet collection and deposition onto a solid surface. Reproducible (coefficient of variation of 0.7%–2.3%) picoliter volumes were generated by retracting fibers from an aqueous phase immersed in an inert fluorinated immiscible liquid (to avoid evaporation).…”

Section: Justification Theoretical Framework and Experimental Tementioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrasmall Liquid Droplets on Solid Surfaces: Production, Imaging, and Relevance for Current Wetting Research

Méndez-Vilas

Jódar-Reyes

González-Martı́n

2009

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125

130

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The investigation of micro- and nanoscale droplets on solid surfaces offers a wide range of research opportunities both at a fundamental and an applied level. On the fundamental side, advances in the techniques for production and imaging of such ultrasmall droplets will allow wetting theories to be tested down to the nanometer scale, where they predict the significant influence of phenomena such as the contact line tension or evaporation, which can be neglected in the case of macroscopic droplets. On the applied side, these advances will pave the way for characterizing a diverse set of industrially important materials such as textile or biomedical micro- and nanofibers, powdered solids, and topographically or chemically nanopatterned surfaces, as well as micro-and nanoscale devices, with relevance in diverse industries from biomedical to petroleum engineering. Here, the basic principles of wetting at the micro- and nanoscales are presented, and the essential characteristics of the main experimental techniques available for producing and imaging these droplets are described. In addition, the main fundamental and applied results are reviewed. The most problematic aspects of studying such ultrasmall droplets, and the developments that are in progress that are thought to circumvent them in the coming years, are highlighted.

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Section: Justification Theoretical Framework and Experimental Tementioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrasmall Liquid Droplets on Solid Surfaces: Production, Imaging, and Relevance for Current Wetting Research

Méndez-Vilas

Jódar-Reyes

González-Martı́n

2009

Small

125

130

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“…It was shown experimentally that, on highly hydrophobic fluorinated SiO 2 substrates (receding contact angle 98°), the size of the droplets could be significantly smaller than the aperture size . This effect was also demonstrated at larger scale using pipets. , The force curves measured in the NADIS experiments showed no difference compared to the case of a dry tip. During the retraction, the tip remains in contact with the surface and then suddenly detaches.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…This is coherent with the experimental observations, but no quantitative comparison is possible. Moreover, in the ultimate stage of the meniscus failure, dynamic effects may play an important role. , …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capillary Forces during Liquid Nanodispensing

2009

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We present a comprehensive study of the capillary force measured during the liquid nanodispensing of attoliter droplets with an atomic force microscope tip. Due to the presence of a nanochannel drilled at the tip apex and connected to a reservoir droplet deposited on the cantilever, we observe a large variety of force curves during the deposition process. We propose a numerical method which accounts for most of the experimental observations. In particular, we clearly demonstrate the influence of the nanochannel diameter. This study leads to a better understanding of the mechanisms of liquid transfer from the tip to the surface and also provides a real time monitoring of the dispensing. Besides these applications, the method we use, which can handle a large variety of conditions and also complex geometries, may find a wide range of applications.

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“…The reflected light was routed through port 3 of the circulator to a low-bandwidth optical power meter. A similar apparatus with a fused silica capillary fiber was used in [14]. To validate the proposed method, a first set of experiments was carried out in synchronization with visual observation of the droplets, using real-time video recording at 25 frames per second.…”

Section: Principle Of Operation and Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring and analysis of pendant droplets evaporation using bare and monolayer-coated optical fiber facets

Preter

Katims

Artel

et al. 2014

Opt. Mater. Express

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The monitoring of sub nano-liter pendant liquid droplets, during their evaporation from the cleaved facet of a standard optical fiber, is proposed and demonstrated. The combined reflections of incident light from the two boundaries, between fiber and liquid and between liquid and air, give rise to interference fringes as the fluid evaporates. The analysis of the fringe pattern allows for the reconstruction of the instantaneous size and evaporation rate of the droplets. These, in turn, provide information regarding the properties of the liquid itself, and the surface to which it is applied. The sensor readout is validated against direct video observation of evaporating droplets. Several examples illustrate the potential of the proposed sensor. Evaporation dynamics measurements identify the ethanol contents in binary ethanol-water mixtures with 2% certainty. The evaporation dynamics are modified by the application of a hydrophobic self-assembled monolayer coating to the tip of the fiber. Ten different organic solvents are accurately classified by clustering analysis of their evaporation data, collected using bare and coated fibers. Potential applications of the sensors could include quality control of water, beverages and oils, recognition of flexible fuel blends and fuel dilutions, mobile pointof-care diagnostics, and laboratory analysis of surface treatments.

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Picoliter Droplet Formation on Thin Optical Fiber Tips

Cited by 9 publications

References 33 publications

Ultrasmall Liquid Droplets on Solid Surfaces: Production, Imaging, and Relevance for Current Wetting Research

Ultrasmall Liquid Droplets on Solid Surfaces: Production, Imaging, and Relevance for Current Wetting Research

Capillary Forces during Liquid Nanodispensing

Monitoring and analysis of pendant droplets evaporation using bare and monolayer-coated optical fiber facets

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