Droplet Mixing Using Electrically Tunable Superhydrophobic Nanostructured Surfaces

Soft Matter Key Words

Nanostructures, DNA hybridization, superhydrophobic surface, droplet mixing

Context

Recently there has been a lot of effort towards creating lab-on-a-chip devices. For a lab-on-a-chip device to be effective, it must be able to perform biological assays. Cost, portability, and time are all factors that come into play when designing a lab-on-a-chip device. Most of these devices deal with very small quantities of samples, on the order of a few microliters of fluid. Many biological assays, such as DNA hybridization, require effective mixing of the sample in order to speed up a process. In this vein, there has been a push towards effective mixing techniques for these devices. This papers discusses one method developed in the lab.

Design