Electrowetting

Electrowetting

The electrowetting behavior of mercury and other liquids on variably charged surfaces was probably first explained by Lipmann in 1875 and was certainly observed much earlier. Froumkin used surface charge to change the shape of water drops in 1936. The term electrowetting was first introduced in 1981 to describe an effect proposed for designing a new type of display device [G. Beni and S. Hackwood, Appl. Phys. Lett. 38, 4, pp.207-209, 1981] . Digital microfluidic manipulation of chemical and biological fluids was first investigated by J. Brown in 1984-1989 [NRL Pub. w/E. Soltani & M. Peckerar, 1985; NSF Grants 8760730 & 8822197] , demonstrating valves, pumps and digitally relocatable nano droplets. In the past 25 years or so, a large number of devices based on electrowetting have been devised. In particular, electrowetting has been used successfully as one of several techniques to actuate microdroplets in a digital microfluidic device. In many of these applications, electrowetting allows large numbers of droplets to be independently manipulated under direct electrical control without the use of external pumps, valves or even fixed channels.

The electrowetting effect has been defined as "the change in solid electrolyte contact angle due to an applied potential difference between the solid and the electrolyte". The phenomenon of electrowetting can be understood in terms of the forces that result from the applied electric field. The fringing field at the corners of the electrolyte droplet tend to pull the droplet down onto the electrode, lowering the macroscopic contact angle and increasing the droplet contact area. Alternatively, electrowetting can be viewed from a thermodynamic perspective. Since the surface tension of an interface is defined as the Gibbs free energy required to create a certain area of that surface, it contains both chemical and electrical components, and charge becomes a significant term in that equation. The chemical component is just the natural surface tension of the solid/electrolyte interface with no electric field. The electrical component is the energy stored in the capacitor formed between the conductor and the electrolyte.

Electrowetting Theory

The simplest derivation of electrowetting behavior is given by considering its thermodynamic model. While it is possible to obtain a detailed numerical model of electrowetting by considering the precise shape of the electrical fringing field and how it affects the local droplet curvature, such solutions are mathematically and computationally complex. The thermodynamic derivation proceeds as follows. Defining the relevant surface tensions as: : gamma_{ws} , - The total, electrical and chemical, surface tension between the electrolyte and the conductor: gamma_{ws}^0 , - The surface tension between the electrolyte and the conductor at zero electric field: gamma_s , - The surface tension between the conductor and the external ambient: gamma_w , - The surface tension between the electrolyte and the ambient: heta - The macroscopic contact angle between the electrolyte and the dielectric:C - The capacitance of the interface, єrє0/t, for a uniform dielectric of thickness t and permittivity єr:V - The effective applied voltage, integral of the electric field from the electrolyte to the conductorRelating the total surface tension to its chemical and electrical components gives:

: gamma _{ws} = gamma _{ws}^0 - frac{CV^2}{2} ,

The contact angle is given by the Young-Dupre equation, with the only complication being that the total surface energy gamma_{ws} is used:

: gamma_{ws} = gamma_s + gamma_w cos( heta) ,

Combining the two equations gives the dependence of θ on the effective applied voltage as:

: heta = cos^{-1}(frac{gamma _{ws}^0-gamma_s-frac{CV^2}{2{gamma_w}) ,

An additional complication is that liquids also exhibit a saturation phenomena: after certain voltage, the saturation voltage, the further increase of voltage will not change the contact angle, and with extreme voltages the interface will only show instabilities. The ultimate and complete explanation of electrowetting, mainly because of this effect, is still missing.

Materials

For reasons that are still under investigation, only a limited set of surfaces exhibit the theoretically predicted electrowetting behavior. Amorphous fluoropolymers are by far the best electrowetting materials discovered so far, and it has been found that their behaviour can be enhanced by the appropriate patterning. Three types of such polymers are commercially available: FluoroPel is sold by the [http://www.cytonix.com/ Cytonix Corporation] , CYTOP is sold by Asahi Glass Co., and Teflon AF is sold by DuPont.

Applications

Electrowetting is now used in a wide range of applications from modulab to adjustable lenses, electronic displays and switches for optical fibers.

References

External links

* [http://www.varioptic.com Varioptic] Autofocus Liquid lenses solutions based on electrowetting. With no moving parts, they feature crucial advantages over traditional technologies in terms of robustness, cost, size, power consumption and speed.
* http://www.cytonix.com/ Cytonix Corporation] - Digital electronic micromanipulation of chemical & bilogical fluids and source of hydrophobic and super-hydrophobic coatings.
* [http://www.liquavista.com/ Liquavista] - Electrowetting displays, exceptional viewability (all angles) even in bright sunlight, with substantial power savings and compatible to LCD manufacturing processes
* [http://www.adt-gmbh.de/ ADT GmbH] Bistable EW displays with extended temperature range and scalability as droplet-driven-displays with printer-like performance
* [http://www.liquid-logic.com Advanced Liquid Logic] Lab-on-a-chip products based on electrowetting-based manipulation of droplets
* [http://www.chem.utoronto.ca/staff/WHEELER/ Wheeler Digital Microfluidics Group] at the University of Toronto
* [http://www.uc.edu/electrowetting/ Electrowetting at the University of Cincinnati.]
* [http://www.ee.duke.edu/research/microfluidics/ Digital Microfluidics at Duke University]
* [http://www.iemn.univ-lille1.fr/sites_perso/microflu/ewod.html Micro/nanofluidic group at IEMN (Lille university)]
* [http://pcf.tnw.utwente.nl/ Physics of Complex Fluids at University of Twente]
* [http://www.displaylabor.de/paper/Elektrowetting_blankenbach_wikipedia.pdf EW summary] Overview about EW applications (in German) by K. Blankenbach, Pforzheim University, Germany


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Electrowetting — Unter dem Oberbegriff Elektrokapillarität oder Elektrobenetzung (engl. electrowetting) werden elektrooptische Bauelemente zusammengefasst, deren Funktion darauf basiert, dass ein elektrisches Feld in der Lage ist, die Oberflächenspannung von… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • electrowetting — noun wetting aided by an electric charge …   Wiktionary

  • Microfluidics — deals with the behavior, precise control and manipulation of fluids that are geometrically constrained to a small, typically sub millimeter, scale. Typically, micro means one of the following features: small volumes (nl, pl, fl) small size low… …   Wikipedia

  • Digital microfluidics — is an alternative technology for lab on a chip systems based upon micromanipulation of discrete droplets. Microfluidic processing is performed on unit sized packets of fluid which are transported, stored, mixed, reacted, or analyzed in a discrete …   Wikipedia

  • Digital newspaper technology — is the technology used to create or distribute a digital newspaper. Contents 1 Hardware 1.1 PC s 1.1.1 PC 1.1.2 Netbook …   Wikipedia

  • Elektrobenetzung — Mit Elektrokapillarität oder Elektrobenetzung (englisch electrowetting) wird das physikalische Phänomen bezeichnet, bei dem ein elektrisches Feld durch Veränderung der Oberflächenspannung einer Flüssigkeit dazu führt, dass die Flüssigkeit… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Elektronisches Papier — Amazon Kindle 3 Prototyp eines hochauflösenden elektronischen Papiers. De …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Gabriel Lippmann — (1908) Jonas Ferdinand Gabriel [1] Lippmann (* 16. August 1845 in Bonneweg (Bonnevoie) [2], damals Gemeinde Hollerich, Luxemburg; † 13. Juli 1921 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Karlheinz Blankenbach — Karl Heinz Blankenbach ist Professor an der Hochschule Pforzheim. Er lehrt auf den Gebieten Displays, Software, Physik und Elektrotechnik. Blankenbach studierte an der Universität Ulm Physik und promovierte dort. Seine Dissertation legte er 1988… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Coffee ring — In physics, a coffee ring is a pattern left by a puddle of particle laden liquid after it evaporates. The phenomenon is named for the characteristic ring like deposit along the perimeter of a spill of coffee. It is also commonly seen after… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”