Micro/Optofluidic Devices for Bio and Energy Applications

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "A:Physics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2021) | Viewed by 4772

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Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182, USA
Interests: microfluidics; optofluidics; interfacial science; biofluidics; biophotonics; biological sensors; water/air quality detection; lab on a chip; energy harvesting; solar energy collection and indoor lighting; multi-physics computational simulation; micro/nano fabrication
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Microfluidics is rapidly emerging as a breakthrough technology in an expanding range of fields, such as medical sciences, bio-sensing and actuation, chemical synthesis, energy harvesting, and more. This is helping to transform microfluidics from a promising R&D tool to commercially viable technology. Along with technology advances in the area of microfluidics, the idea of using fluids for light control, and vice versa, has also attracted great attention in the new research discipline of optofluidics that combines the advantages of microfluidics and optics. Fuelling the expansion in micro/optofluidics areas is the intensified focus on a highly valuable improvement of automation and enhanced functionality through integration with electrical, mechanical, photonic, sensing, and flow control elements.

In this Special Issue, we invite the scientific community to highlight methods and emerging challenges with this new phase of micro/optofluidic development with the goal of informing readers of the current state-of-the-art. Original research papers and review articles on micro/optofluidic devices and their bio and energy related applications are welcomed.

Prof. Sung-Yong Park
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Microfluidics
  • Nanofluidics
  • Biofluidics
  • Optofluidic manipulation
  • Lab-on-a-chip (LOC)
  • Microfluidic-based energy harvesting
  • Microfluidic sensing and actuation
  • Micro/Nano fabrication

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 1726 KiB  
Article
Capacitance Effects of a Hydrophobic-Coated Ion Gel Dielectric on AC Electrowetting
by Taewoo Lee and Sung-Yong Park
Micromachines 2021, 12(3), 320; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12030320 - 18 Mar 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2589
Abstract
We present experimental studies of alternating current (AC) electrowetting dominantly influenced by several unique characteristics of an ion gel dielectric in its capacitance. At a high-frequency region above 1 kHz, the droplet undergoes the contact angle modification. Due to its high-capacitance characteristic, the [...] Read more.
We present experimental studies of alternating current (AC) electrowetting dominantly influenced by several unique characteristics of an ion gel dielectric in its capacitance. At a high-frequency region above 1 kHz, the droplet undergoes the contact angle modification. Due to its high-capacitance characteristic, the ion gel allows the contact angle change as large as Δθ = 26.4°, more than 2-fold improvement, compared to conventional dielectrics when f = 1 kHz. At the frequency range from 1 to 15 kHz, the capacitive response of the gel layer dominates and results in a nominal variation in the angle change as θ ≈ 90.9°. Above 15 kHz, such a capacitive response of the gel layer sharply decreases and leads to the drastic increase in the contact angle. At a low-frequency region below a few hundred Hz, the droplet’s oscillation relying on the AC frequency applied was mainly observed and oscillation performance was maximized at corresponding resonance frequencies. With the high-capacitance feature, the ion gel significantly enlarges the oscillation performance by 73.8% at the 1st resonance mode. The study herein on the ion gel dielectric will help for various AC electrowetting applications with the benefits of mixing enhancement, large contact angle modification, and frequency-independent control. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro/Optofluidic Devices for Bio and Energy Applications)
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25 pages, 8843 KiB  
Article
A Pot-Like Vibrational Microfluidic Rotational Motor
by Suzana Uran, Matjaž Malok, Božidar Bratina and Riko Šafarič
Micromachines 2021, 12(2), 177; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12020177 - 11 Feb 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1712
Abstract
Constructing a micro-sized microfluidic motor always involves the problem of how to transfer the mechanical energy out of the motor. The paper presents several experiments with pot-like microfluidic rotational motor structures driven by two perpendicular sine and cosine vibrations with amplitudes around 10 [...] Read more.
Constructing a micro-sized microfluidic motor always involves the problem of how to transfer the mechanical energy out of the motor. The paper presents several experiments with pot-like microfluidic rotational motor structures driven by two perpendicular sine and cosine vibrations with amplitudes around 10 μm in the frequency region from 200 Hz to 500 Hz. The extensive theoretical research based on the mathematical model of the liquid streaming in a pot-like structure was the base for the successful real-life laboratory application of a microfluidic rotational motor. The final microfluidic motor structure allowed transferring the rotational mechanical energy out of the motor with a central axis. The main practical challenge of the research was to find the proper balance between the torque, due to friction in the bearings and the motor’s maximal torque. The presented motor, with sizes 1 mm by 0.6 mm, reached the maximal rotational speed in both directions between −15 rad/s to +14 rad/s, with the estimated maximal torque of 0.1 pNm. The measured frequency characteristics of vibration amplitudes and phase angle between the directions of both vibrational amplitudes and rotational speed of the motor rotor against frequency of vibrations, allowed us to understand how to build the pot-like microfluidic rotational motor. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro/Optofluidic Devices for Bio and Energy Applications)
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