Thermocoalescence of microdroplets in a microfluidic chamber
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Author(s)
Trung-Dung, Luong
Nam-Trung, Nguyen
Sposito, Alex
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2012
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Droplet coalescence plays an important role in droplet-based microfluidics. This letter reports the phenomenon of thermocoalescence of two droplets in a chamber with a microheater. An integrated resistive sensor allows the measurement of heating temperature. The merging process was investigated at different flow rates. Experimental results showed that the droplet slows down at increasing temperature and eventually merges with the subsequent droplet. Coalescence occurs at a critical heating temperature. The letter discusses the relationship between droplet velocity, critical merging temperature, and flow rates.Droplet coalescence plays an important role in droplet-based microfluidics. This letter reports the phenomenon of thermocoalescence of two droplets in a chamber with a microheater. An integrated resistive sensor allows the measurement of heating temperature. The merging process was investigated at different flow rates. Experimental results showed that the droplet slows down at increasing temperature and eventually merges with the subsequent droplet. Coalescence occurs at a critical heating temperature. The letter discusses the relationship between droplet velocity, critical merging temperature, and flow rates.
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Journal Title
Applied Physics Letters
Volume
100
Issue
25
Copyright Statement
© 2012 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in [citation of published article] and may be found at [URL/link for published article abstract].
Subject
Physical sciences
Engineering
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)