Smooth transportation of liquid metal droplets in a microchannel as detected by a serially arranged capacitive device

Abstract

Gallium alloy liquid metals (Galinstan) possessing fluidity, electric conductivity, and low toxicity are attractive for use in flexible devices and microfluidic devices. However, the oxide skin of Galinstan in the atmosphere adheres to the microchannel surface, preventing the transportation of Galinstan in the channel. To tackle the problem of the adhesion of Galinstan to microchannel, we introduced liquid with Galinstan into a channel with a diameter of 1000 μm. Then, we found that the cylindrical shape of the channel enabled smooth transportation of Galinstan independently of both the liquid and the channel material. The liquid introduced with Galinstan not only prevents adhesion but also improves the spatial controllability of Galinstan in the channel. We can control the position of Galinstan with 100 μm resolution using highly viscous (> 10 cSt) liquid. In addition, we combined the microchannel with patterned electrodes, fabricating a serially arranged capacitive device. The local capacitance detected by the patterned electrodes changed by more than 6% via the smooth transportation of Galinstan. The analysis results based on an equivalent circuit quantitatively agree with our experimental results. We can modulate the serially arranged capacitors using the smooth transportation of Galinstan in the channel.