Ultrafast and long-range self-transport of droplets on multi-bioinspired surface with periodic gradient structure
Abstract Droplet self-transport is crucial in various fields ranging from physics to biochemistry. Despite extensive progress, existing systems for droplet self-transport still perform at low transport velocity or limited transport range. Here, a multi-bioinspired surface comprising two-dimensional gradient structures is proposed innovatively, which integrates the heterogeneous wettability with the shape gradient morphology. Droplet transport behaviors are systematically investigated from experiment, theory, and simulation. The fabricated structure achieves the ultrafast (over ~ 450 mm/s) and long-range (over ~ 200 mm) self-transport of droplets. Moreover, the fantastic scalability of this structure enables it to pump numerous multi-scale droplets from one site to the preset region with ultralow loss. Drawing inspirations, two systems have been designed to complete complex tasks on open surface. This work provides a reliable droplet manipulation strategy for various applications, such as water collection, microfluidics, and biomedicine, etc.
