Manipulation and control of droplets on surfaces in a homogeneous electric field

A method to manipulate and control droplets on a surface is presented. The method is based on inducing electric dipoles inside the droplets using a homogeneous external electric field. It is shown that the repulsive dipole force efficiently suppresses the coalescence of droplets moving on a liquid-infused surface (LIS). Using a combination of experiments, numerical computations and semi-analytical models, the dependence of the repulsion force on the droplet volumes, the distance between the droplets and the electric field strength is revealed. The method allows to suppress coalescence in complex multi-droplet flows and is real-time adaptive. When the electric field strength exceeds a critical value, tip streaming from the droplets sets in. Based on that, it becomes possible to withdraw minute samples from an array of droplets in a parallel process.

Ultra-dispersed particles of water-soluble and water-insoluble substances formed from gas-droplet flows

The work is devoted to the experimental study of the ultra dispersed particles formation process, which is essentially a fundamental problem of heat and mass transfer in gas-droplet flows under phase transformation conditions. Various methods of generating and controlling the gas-droplet flow parameters are considered. The description of the created equipment and diagnostic methods for studying gas-droplet flows is given. The particle size distribution functions are obtained using an aerosol particle spectrometer. The possibility of controlling the parameters of ultrafine particles of water-soluble and water-insoluble substances (medications) formed under evaporation of microdroplets of solutions and suspensions is shown experimentally. An attempt to reconstruct the distribution functions of microdroplets and their average dimension from measurements of the parameters of ultrafine particles formed after complete evaporation of the droplets is made.

Controlling Droplet Marangoni Flows to Improve Microscopy-Based TB Diagnosis

In developing countries, the most common diagnostic method for tuberculosis (TB) is microscopic examination sputum smears. Current assessment requires time-intensive inspection across the microscope slide area, and this contributes to its poor diagnostic sensitivity of ≈50%. Spatially concentrating TB bacteria in a smaller area is one potential approach to improve visual detection and potentially increase sensitivity. We hypothesized that a combination of magnetic concentration and induced droplet Marangoni flow would spatially concentrate Mycobacterium tuberculosis on the slide surface by preferential deposition of beads and TB–bead complexes in the center of an evaporating droplet. To this end, slide substrate and droplet solvent thermal conductivities and solvent surface tension, variables known to impact microfluidic flow patterns in evaporating droplets, were varied to select the most appropriate slide surface coating. Optimization in a model system used goniometry, optical coherence tomography, and microscope images of the final deposition pattern to observe the droplet flows and maximize central deposition of 1 μm fluorescent polystyrene particles and 200 nm nanoparticles (NPs) in 2 μL droplets. Rain-X® polysiloxane glass coating was identified as the best substrate material, with a PBS-Tween droplet solvent. The use of smaller, 200 nm magnetic NPs instead of larger 1 μm beads allowed for bright field imaging of bacteria. Using these optimized components, we compared standard smear methods to the Marangoni-based spatial concentration system, which was paired with magnetic enrichment using iron oxide NPs, isolating M. bovis BCG (BCG) from samples containing 0 and 103 to 106 bacilli/mL. Compared to standard smear preparation, paired analysis demonstrated a combined volumetric and spatial sample enrichment of 100-fold. With further refinement, this magnetic/Marangoni flow concentration approach is expected to improve whole-pathogen microscopy-based diagnosis of TB and other infectious diseases.

Supersonic flow of two-phase gas- droplet flows in nozzles

For practical applications, the description of processes occurring during the flow of two-phase gas-liquid mixtures requires a simple physical and mathematical model that describes the behavior of a two-phase medium in the entire range of phase concentrations changes and in a wide range of pressure changes. Problems of this kind arise in various branches of industry and technology. In the space industry, one often has to deal with the movement of various gases in rocket nozzles, consider the combustion, condensation of various vapors on the nozzle walls and their further impact on the velocity sublayer at the nozzle wall. The large acoustic effect arising from the engines affects the gas-liquid mixture in the nozzles of rocket engines. In the metal industry, metal cooling occurs with the help of nozzles in which the emulsion mixture is supplied under high overpressure. But this is only a short list of applied issues in which one has to deal with a problem of this type. The paper presents the results and directions of study of the problems of two-phase dispersed gas-droplet flows in the nozzles. The main methods of investigation of two- phase heterogeneous flows are described. The main characteristics of heterogeneous two-phase flows in the nozzles, which were confirmed by experimental results, are presented. The calculation of the air-droplet flow in the Laval nozzle is given. The technique, which is based on integral energy equations for two-phase dispersed flows, is described. The main problems and questions concerning the further description and studying of two-component flows are stated.