Droplet Mixing Using Electrically Tunable Superhydrophobic Nanostructured Surfaces (01 January 2005)

We demonstrate mixing of microliter droplets using electrically- tunable superhydrophobic nanostructured surfaces. By applying electrical voltage and current, droplets can be reversibly switched from a wetting to a non-wetting state, which induces fluid motion within the droplet. 

This mixing concept was verified using a DNA hybridization assay, in which a single droplet reversibility accelerated the hybridization reaction by an order of magnitude as compared to mixing by passive diffusion. This work offers a new method to effectively mix droplets for a variety of microfluidics applications.