Superhydrophobic Surfaces for Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-Chip Applications

Barbara CORTESE,  CNR-Nanotec & Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza University of Rome

Controlling the wettability of solid materials is a key issue in surface engineering and microfluidics. Wettability is in fact very important to control the motion of drops on solid surfaces at the micronanoscale. Superhydrophobic materials offer an alternative mean to manipulation of droplets defined as surface microfluidics. Surface microfluidics offers several advantages over the conventional counterpart, such as simplicity of construction, direct surface access for micropipette manipulation, avoidance of cavitation/interfacial obstruction, clear optical path, and compatibility with biological experiments as well as easier cleaning. To perform surface microfluidics on a single planar substrate, a very high wettability contrast on the surface becomes necessary. We present biomimetic strategies for customizable superhydrophobic surfaces to produce open microfluidic devices. Through the careful design of topographic and chemical heterogeneities on solid surfaces it is possible to passively manipulate droplets on the microscale for a wide range of droplet operations. Moreover the use of a unique open fluidic platform can facilitate and improve portability for Lab-on-a-chip devices.

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