1,340 research outputs found
Electrowetting of liquid marbles
Electrowetting of water drops on structured superhydrophobic surfaces are known to cause an irreversible change from a slippy (Cassie-Baxter) to a sticky (Wenzel) regime. An alternative approach to using a water drop on a superhydrophobic surface to obtain a non-wetting system is to use a liquid marble on a smooth solid substrate. A liquid marble is a droplet coated in hydrophobic grains, which therefore carries its own solid surface structure as a conformal coating. Such droplets can be considered as perfect non-wetting systems having contact angles to smooth solid substrates of close to 180 degrees. In this work we report the electrowetting of liquid marbles made of water coated with hydrophobic lycopodium grains and show that the electrowetting is completely reversible. Marbles are shown to return to their initial contact angle for both ac and dc electrowetting and without requiring a threshold voltage to be exceeded. Furthermore, we provide a proof-of-principle demonstration that controlled motion of marbles on a finger electrode structure is possible
Effect of Particle Size on Droplet Infiltration into Hydrophobic Porous Media As a Model of Water Repellent Soil
The wettability of soil is of great importance for plants and soil biota, and in determining the risk for preferential flow, surface runoff, flooding,and soil erosion. The molarity of ethanol droplet (MED) test is widely used for quantifying the severity of water repellency in soils that show reduced wettability and is assumed to be independent of soil particle size. The minimum ethanol concentration at which droplet penetration occurs within a short time (≤10 s) provides an estimate of the initial advancing contact angle at which spontaneous wetting is expected. In this study, we test the assumption of particle size independence using a simple model of soil, represented by layers of small (0.2–2 mm) diameter beads that predict the effect of changing bead radius in the top layer on capillary driven imbibition. Experimental results using a three-layer bead system show broad agreement with the model and demonstrate a dependence of the MED test on particle size. The results show that the critical initial advancing contact angle for penetration can be considerably less than 90° and varies with particle size, demonstrating that a key assumption currently used in the MED testing of soil is not necessarily valid
Nanotechnology: current concepts in orthopaedic surgery and future directions.
Nanotechnology is the study, production and controlled manipulation of materials with a grain size \u3c 100 nm. At this level, the laws of classical mechanics fall away and those of quantum mechanics take over, resulting in unique behaviour of matter in terms of melting point, conductivity and reactivity. Additionally, and likely more significant, as grain size decreases, the ratio of surface area to volume drastically increases, allowing for greater interaction between implants and the surrounding cellular environment. This favourable increase in surface area plays an important role in mesenchymal cell differentiation and ultimately bone-implant interactions. Basic science and translational research have revealed important potential applications for nanotechnology in orthopaedic surgery, particularly with regard to improving the interaction between implants and host bone. Nanophase materials more closely match the architecture of native trabecular bone, thereby greatly improving the osseo-integration of orthopaedic implants. Nanophase-coated prostheses can also reduce bacterial adhesion more than conventionally surfaced prostheses. Nanophase selenium has shown great promise when used for tumour reconstructions, as has nanophase silver in the management of traumatic wounds. Nanophase silver may significantly improve healing of peripheral nerve injuries, and nanophase gold has powerful anti-inflammatory effects on tendon inflammation. Considerable advances must be made in our understanding of the potential health risks of production, implantation and wear patterns of nanophase devices before they are approved for clinical use. Their potential, however, is considerable, and is likely to benefit us all in the future. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2014; 96-B: 569-73
Dielectrophoresis-Driven Spreading of Immersed Liquid Droplets
In recent years electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) has become an effective tool to control partial wetting. EWOD uses the liquid−solid interface as part of a capacitive structure that allows capacitive and interfacial energies to adjust by changes in wetting when the liquid−solid interface is charged due to an applied voltage. An important aspect of EWOD has been its applications in micro fluidics in chemistry and biology and in optical devices and displays in physics and engineering. Many of these rely on the use of a liquid droplet immersed in a second liquid due to the need either for neutral buoyancy to overcome gravity and shield against impact shocks or to encapsulate the droplet for other reasons, such as in microfluidic-based DNA analyses. Recently, it has been shown that nonwetting oleophobic surfaces can be forcibly wetted by nonconducting oils using nonuniform electric fields and an interface-localized form of liquid dielectrophoresis (dielectrowetting). Here we show that this effect can be used to create films of oil immersed in a second immiscible fluid of lower permittivity. We predict that the square of the thickness of the film should obey a simple law dependent on the square of the applied voltage and with strength dependent on the ratio of difference in permittivity to the liquid-fluid interfacial tension, Δε/γLF. This relationship is experimentally confirmed for 11 liquid−air and liquid−liquid combinations with Δε/γLF having a span of more than two orders of magnitude. We therefore provide fundamental understanding of dielectrowetting for liquid-in-liquid systems and also open up a new method to determine liquid−liquid interfacial tensions
The effective surface Debye temperature of Yb:GaN
The effective Debye temperature of ytterbium and gallium in Yb:GaN thin films has been obtained using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The vibrational motion normal to the surface results in a dimunition of photoemission intensities from which we have estimated the effective Debye temperatures of 221±30 K and 308±30 K for Yb and Ga, respectively. The difference between the measured values for Yb and Ga suggests that the Debye temperatures are influenced by the local environment. The smaller effective surface Debye temperature for Yb correlates to a soft, strained surface, possibly due to an increased Yb―N bond length as compared to the Ga―N bond length
Direct Evidence of Multi-Bubble Sonoluminescence using Therapeutic Ultrasound and Microbubbles
The
intense conditions generated in the core of a collapsing bubble
have been the subject of intense scrutiny from fields as diverse as
marine biology and nuclear fusion. In particular, the phenomenon of
sonoluminescence, whereby a collapsing bubble emits light, has received
significant attention. Sonoluminescence has been associated predominantly
with millimeter-sized bubbles excited at low frequencies and under
conditions far removed from those associated with the use of ultrasound
in medicine. In this study, however, we demonstrate that sonoluminescence
is produced under medically relevant exposure conditions by microbubbles
commonly used as contrast agents for ultrasound imaging. This provides
a mechanistic explanation for the somewhat controversial reports of
“sonodynamic” therapy, in which light-sensitive drugs
have been shown to be activated by ultrasound-induced cavitation.
To illustrate this, we demonstrate the activation of a photodynamic
therapy agent using microbubbles and ultrasound. Since ultrasound
can be accurately focused at large tissue depths, this opens up the
potential for generating light at locations that cannot be reached
by external sources. This could be exploited both for diagnostic and
therapeutic applications, significantly increasing the range of applications
that are currently restricted by the limited penetration of light
in the tissue
Nodal Structure of Unconventional Superconductors Probed by the Angle Resolved Thermal Transport Measurements
Over the past two decades, unconventional superconductivity with gap symmetry
other than s-wave has been found in several classes of materials, including
heavy fermion (HF), high-T_c, and organic superconductors. Unconventional
superconductivity is characterized by anisotropic superconducting gap
functions, which may have zeros (nodes) along certain directions in the
Brillouin zone. The nodal structure is closely related to the pairing
interaction, and it is widely believed that the presence of nodes is a
signature of magnetic or some other exotic, rather than conventional
phonon-mediated, pairing mechanism. Therefore experimental determination of the
gap function is of fundamental importance. However, the detailed gap structure,
especially the direction of the nodes, is an unresolved issue in most
unconventional superconductors. Recently it has been demonstrated that the
thermal conductivity and specific heat measurements under magnetic field
rotated relative to the crystal axes are a powerful method for determining the
shape of the gap and the nodal directions in the bulk. Here we review the
theoretical underpinnings of the method and the results for the nodal structure
of several unconventional superconductors, including borocarbide YNiBC,
heavy fermions UPdAl, CeCoIn, and PrOsSb, organic
superconductor, -(BEDT-TTF)Cu(NCS), and ruthenate
SrRuO, determined by angular variation of the thermal conductivity and
heat capacity.Comment: topical review, 55 pages, 35 figures. Figure quality has been reduced
for submission to cond-mat, higher quality figures available from the authors
or from the publishe
Sensitivity of the Superconducting Transition Temperature to Changes in the Spin-Fluctuation Spectral Weight
In the simplest model of magnetic pairing, the transition temperature to the
superconducting state depends on the dynamical susceptibility . We discuss how is affected by different momentum and
frequency parts of for nearly antiferromagnetic and
nearly ferromagnetic metals in two dimensions. While in the case of
phonon-mediated superconductivity any addition of spectral weight to
at leads to an increase in , we find that
adding magnetic spectral weight at any momentum and low frequencies
( and for nearly antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic
metals respectively) leads to a suppression of . The most effective
frequency and momentum range consists of large momenta
and frequencies around for nearly antiferromagnetic metals and small
momenta and frequencies of approximately for
nearly ferromagnetic metals.Comment: 18 pages, 39 figure
Hierarchical Nanotexturing Enables Acoustofluidics on Slippery yet Sticky, Flexible Surfaces
The ability to actuate liquids remains a fundamental challenge in smart
microsystems, such as those for soft robotics, where devices often need to conform to
either natural or three-dimensional solid shapes, in various orientations. Here, we
propose a hierarchical nanotexturing of piezoelectric films as active microfluidic
actuators, exploiting a unique combination of both topographical and chemical
properties on flexible surfaces, while also introducing design concepts of shear
hydrophobicity and tensile hydrophilicity. In doing so, we create nanostructured
surfaces that are, at the same time, both slippery (low in-plane pinning) and sticky
(high normal-to-plane liquid adhesion). By enabling fluid transportation on such
arbitrarily shaped surfaces, we demonstrate efficient fluid motions on inclined, vertical,
inverted, or even flexible geometries in three dimensions. Such surfaces can also be
deformed and then reformed into their original shapes, thereby paving the way for
advanced microfluidic applications
Mechanical tuning of the evaporation rate of liquid on crossed fibers
We investigate experimentally the drying of a small volume of perfectly
wetting liquid on two crossed fibers. We characterize the drying dynamics for
the three liquid morphologies that are encountered in this geometry: drop,
column and a mixed morphology, in which a drop and a column coexist. For each
morphology, we rationalize our findings with theoretical models that capture
the drying kinetics. We find that the evaporation rate depends significantly on
the liquid morphology and that the drying of liquid column is faster than the
evaporation of the drop and the mixed morphology for a given liquid volume.
Finally, we illustrate that shearing a network of fibers reduces the angle
between them, changes the morphology towards the column state, and so enhances
the drying rate of a volatile liquid deposited on it
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