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Karim S. Khalil, Seyed Reza Mahmoudi, Numan Abu-dheir, and Kripa K. Varanasi
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APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 105, 041604 (2014)
Droplet mobility and manipulation on non-wetting of octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) is impregnated with a fer-
surfaces has received widespread attention due to its signifi- rofluid (EMG901, Ferrotec, Inc.). Ferrofluids, a colloidal sus-
cance in a variety of applications such as liquid repel- pension of ferromagnetic nanoparticles (10 nm) in a carrier
lency,1–6 anti-icing,5,7–12 dropwise condensation,13–17 and fluid stabilized by surfactant, have been studied extensively,
biomedical devices.18–20 In most applications, droplets are but only rarely in their ability to manipulate free drop-
normally moved passively, for example, using gravity.2 lets.55–57 The surface treatment of the ferromagnetic particles
Active manipulation of droplets using electric fields21–24 and prevents agglomeration due to magnetic forces and short
vibrational fields25,26 have been studied, yet moving highly- range van der Waals forces, and Brownian motion prevents
conductive and viscous fluids remains difficult.27–29 The use particle sedimentation in both gravitational and magnetic
of magnetic fields for droplet and particle manipulation has fields. The surfactant surface treatment on the particles is sta-
been recently studied; however, the droplets are paramag- ble generally up to a few years. In the absence of an applied
netic30 or functionalized to be magnetic,31,32 and the process field, the particles are randomly oriented giving the fluid no
becomes challenging for diamagnetic fluids as they need net magnetization. However, in the presence of an external
enormous magnetic fields using superconducting magnets to magnetic field, ferromagnetic nanoparticles align their mag-
operate.33–35 Here, we present a lubricant-impregnated sur- netic dipole moment parallel to the direction of the applied
face,36 where a textured solid is impregnated with a ferro- field and display a strong magnetic interaction.55 The
fluid, that is able to manipulate a variety of different liquids impregnated ferrofluid provides active manipulation for free
including diamagnetic, viscous, electrically conductive and droplets placed on the surface in several ways. The
even solid particles. As illustrated in Figure 1(a), we create a thermodynamically-stable states of a droplet on a lubricant-
liquid-solid composite surface that utilizes a spatially non- impregnated surface have been shown to depend on both the
uniform magnetic field to drive the droplets. Since the mag- relative spreading coefficients of the lubricant and droplet, as
netic property of the liquid does not impose any limitations well as the texture geometry.36 A microtextured surface
on the proposed technique, we are able to transport diamag- lends itself to a critical contact angle below which the lubri-
netic liquids (here water) with the relatively small magnetic cant will successfully impregnate the texture and remain
fields of permanent magnets. held by capillary forces. The lubricant (here an oil-based fer-
Lubricant-impregnated surfaces have recently been rofluid, EMG901) will impregnate a textured surface if
shown to display low contact angle hysteresis,36–42 self- hosðvÞ hc , where hosðvÞ is the contact angle of ferrofluid-
cleaning,38,43 dropwise condensation,44–46 as well as anti- lubricant “o” on the smooth solid “s” in the presence of
icing47–49 and anti-fouling50–54 properties, yet the lubricant air-vapor “v” and hc is the critical contact angle for impreg-
that is being used has usually never been active. Here, a tex- nation, given by36,37
tured surface consisting of a micropost array with a coating
hc ¼ cos1 ½ð1 /Þ=ðr /Þ: (1)
a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic Mail: Here, / is the fraction of the projected area of the textured
varanasi@mit.edu surface that is occupied by a solid and r is the ratio of total
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041604-2 Khalil et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 041604 (2014)
surface area of the textured surface to its projected area. A in the cloak. In this symmetric configuration, the droplet
drop of ferrofluid on a flat silicon substrate treated with OTS remains stationary, as there is no net horizontal force on the
exhibited 20 contact angle, which confirms impregnation droplet. However, when the magnet is in an asymmetric con-
since hc was calculated to be 65 for our sample. As seen in figuration, the droplet is seen to both distort and translate
Figure 1(a), a system comprising of a water droplet on this towards the region of higher magnetic field. As sketched in
surface would obey the state in which a thin layer of Figure 2(b), the cone-like structures are seen to orient along
ferrofluid-lubricant cloaks the water droplet.36,44 The oil- the direction of the maximum field intensity (along the cen-
based ferrofluid is immiscible with water, thus allowing for terline of the magnet), which explains the droplet distortion
the droplet to rest on the surface with a ferrofluid cloak sta- in the same direction. We measure the distortion of the drop-
bly. As confirmed by the photograph in Figure 1(b), when let, hdropletorientation for various magnet orientations, hmagnet ,
the spreading coefficient of the ferrofluid on water in the and indeed, the droplet is seen deform at an angle that aligns
presence of vapor is positive, the ferrofluid will spread on with the center of the magnet surface. This asymmetric
the droplet, i.e., SowðvÞ 0, where SowðvÞ ¼ cwv cov cow
and cwv , cov , cow are the respective interfacial tensions of the
water-air, ferrofluid-air, and ferrofluid-water interfaces.
Since the contact angle of the ferrofluid on the solid in
the presence of water was measured to be zero, hosðwÞ ¼ 08 ,
or SosðwÞ 0, the ferrofluid will fully spread on the micropost
tops beneath a water droplet, thus leading to virtually no
droplet pinning. This results in extremely low contact-angle
hysteresis (1 ) and high droplet mobility. Approaching a
permanent magnet (K&J Magnetics) to the droplet on this
surface as shown in Figure 1(c) causes the droplet to acceler-
ate towards the magnet (see supplementary material video
for Figure 1(c)).59 The droplet position versus time was
tracked and recorded in Figure 1(d), which shows that the
droplet accelerates towards the region of highest magnetic
field.
Now, to better understand the mechanism behind droplet
propulsion, we imaged single droplets resting on the surface
at high magnification. In our experiments, as seen in Figure FIG. 2. (a) Symmetric magnet configuration. Magnetic particles cluster over
2(a), we first approached the magnet symmetrically above the cloaked water droplet and orient themselves to be directly underneath
the droplet. The droplet is seen to deform towards the mag- the region of highest magnetic field intensity. (b) Asymmetric magnet con-
figuration. Magnet approaching angle versus droplet orientation angle which
net, and the magnetic particles crowd to form local cone-like shows that the clumped particles act to deform the droplet directly in the
structures. The magnetic attractive force is locally balanced direction of highest field intensity, or directly at the angle the magnet is
by restoring interfacial forces that act to hold these particles being approached.
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041604-3 Khalil et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 041604 (2014)
interaction results in a net horizontal force on the droplet, interfacial tension c ¼ 0:022N=m, and magnet distance from
which serves to propel the drops. unperturbed interface d.58 Solving Eq. (2) for d utilizing the
Cloaked droplets continue to deform along with the fer- given values for the other quantities, we can predict a critical
rofluid until the magnet reaches a critical distance at which magnet distance of d ¼ Oð102 mÞ for the jetting transition
the magnetic attractive force of the particles is greater than to occur, which we confirm experimentally. A high-speed
the interfacial forces that are stabilizing them in the cloak. camera was used to visualize this phenomenon as shown in
The particles then physically detach from the film and ag- Figure 3(b), and in supplementary material.59 The droplet
glomerate on the surface of the magnet, thus marking the height was recorded as the distance between the magnet, and
onset of the “jetting” transition in a manner consistent with the droplet was decreased, and is graphically displayed in
the jetting of particles from a free ferrofluid surface reported Figure 3(a). We observe two different regimes in the droplet
previously.58 Applying scaling analysis, one can roughly deformation as shown in the plot.
predict the required condition for which jetting transition When the distance between the magnet and droplet was
occurs.58 As shown in Ref. 58, the natural scaling for the larger than the critical jetting length, the droplet deforms
interfacial deflection of the ferrofluid smoothly and reaches an equilibrium deformation. When the
distance is shorter, the particles begin to jet from the cloak,
lo vM2 Rm 6 V and the droplet height or deformation begins to oscillate due
hc 2 ¼ ; (2) to the continuous forming and detaching of liquid jets. This
18pcd6
accounts for the fluctuating data points on the left portion of
where hc ¼ Oð103 mÞ is a characteristic interfacial the graph. This jetting phenomenon restricts the magnitude
distortion during a jetting experiment, l0 ¼ 1:257 of the magnetic field that could be used for droplet manipula-
106 mkgs2 A2 is the permeability of free space, magnetic tion and should be taken into consideration while designing
susceptibility v ¼ 6:79, permanent magnet magnetization these systems.
M ¼ Oð106 A=mÞ, radius of magnet Rm ¼ 3 103 m, char- To highlight the potential technological impact of this
acteristic volume of clumped particle area V ¼ Oð1010 m3 Þ, type of active surface, we present experiments including free
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041604-4 Khalil et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 041604 (2014)
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