Microdrops and Digital Microfluidics explains how new miniaturization techniques have dramatically expanded the area of microfluidic applications and microsystems into microdrops and digital microfluidics.

Microdrops and Digital Microfluidics features include:

• Authoritative reporting on the latest developments in microfluidic science, where microscopic liquid volumes are handled as microdrops
• A methodical examination of how liquid microdrops behave in the complex geometries of modern miniaturized systems and interact with different (microfabricated, textured) solid substrates.
• A thorough explanation of how capillary forces act on liquid interfaces in contact with microfabricated surfaces
• An analysis of how droplets can be manipulated, handled, or transported using electric fields (electrowetting), acoustic actuation (surface acoustic waves), or by a carrier liquid (droplet microfluidics)
• Over 500 equations and more than 400 illustrations

Contents

Theory of Wetting

1. Interfaces and Surface Tension
2. Laplace Law and Applications
3. Wetting—Partial or Total Wetting
4. Contact Angle—Young's Law
5. Work of Adhesion, Work of Cohesion, and the Young-Dupré Equation
6. Capillary Force, Force on a Triple Line
7. Measuring Surface Tension of Liquids
8. Surface Tension of Solids
9. Minimization of the Surface Energy and Minimal Energy Surfaces

The Physics of Droplets

1. The Shape of Micro-Drops
2. Drops on Inhomogeneous Sufaces
3. Drops Moving by Capillarity
4. Contact Angle Hysteresis
5. Droplet Pinning
6. The Effect of Surfactants
7. Marangoni Convection
8. Evaporation

Theory of Electrowetting

1. Theoretical Background
2. Lippmann-Young Law and the Electrocapillary Equivalence
3. Saturation
4. Hysteresis
5. Working Range of EWOD Devices
6. Materials and Subtrates
7. Discussion: Special Subtrates and Their Characteristics

EWOD Microsystems

1. Open and Covered EWOD Microsystems
2. Droplet Motion
3. Division of Droplets
4. Droplet Merging and Mixing
5. Dilution
6. Magnetic Beads in EWOD Microsystems
7. Architecture of EWOD Microsystems
8. Other EWOD Microsystems

Biological Applications of EWOD Microsystems

1. Biological Liquids and Physiological Samples Compatible with EWOD Devices
2. Sample Collection and Analysis on a Lab-on-a-chip Platform
3. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) on Digital Microfluidics Systems
4. DNA Repair Microprocessor
5. Protein Analysis Coupled with Mass Spectrometry
6. Cell-on-a-chip Microsystems: Example of a Cell Concentrator

Chemical Applications of EWOD Microsystems

1. Non Aqueous Solvents on EWOD Chips
2. Chemical Synthesis in Droplets in EWOD-based Systems

Acoustic Methods

1. Digital Microfluidics
2. Example 1: Acoustic Mixing
3. Example 2: Acoustic Droplet Actuation

Two Phase Microflows: Microdrops in Microflows

1. Two-phase Flows: Plugs in Microchannels
2. Two-phase Flows: Flowing Fluids Separated by an Interface
3. Droplets in Two-phase Flows

Index

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