마랑고니 효과를 이용한 마이크로 채널 내의 액적 제어

Abstract

Controlling droplets is one of the most essential techniques in lab-on-a-chip development. Especially, using local surface tension gradient around a droplet, called Marangoni effects, is paid attention recently as a facile and versatile approach. The Marangoni effect can be induced by light illumination using laser to around a droplet and consequent local temperature gradient. In this research we focus on the effects of various flow conditions and environments on Marangoni effects. The main goal is to establish the most suitable conditions such as droplet size and light intensity, flow rate and etc. A T-junction microchannel was used for hexadecane droplet generation. A green laser was chosen as a light source and a dark ink was used as a continuous phase to absorb the light. Preliminary results shows that a moving droplet in a microchannel can be trapped locally or deflected its direction by properly controlling the flow rate and designing flow geometry.