Thermally mediated breakup of drops in microchannels

Abstract

The authors used thermally induced surface tension gradients to manipulate aqueous droplets in microchannels. Control of the droplet breakup process was demonstrated. Droplet sorting can be achieved with temperatures above a critical value. Numerical simulation using a two-dimensional model agrees qualitatively well with the experimental results. The used control temperature of less than 55 °C shows that this active control concept is suitable for biochemical applications. Thermal control promises to be a simple and effective manipulation method for droplet-based lab on a chip. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.