Droplet group production in an AC electro- flow focusing microdevice

We report the production of droplet groups with a controlled number of drops in a microfluidic electro-flow focusing device under the action of an AC electric field. This regime appears for moderate voltages (500-700 V peak-to-peak) and signal frequencies between 25 and 100 Hz, much smaller than the...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Castro Hernández, Elena De, García Sánchez, Pablo, Velencoso Gómez, Alfonso, Silas Jurado, Antonio, Fernández Rivas, David, Ramos Reyes, Antonio
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Recursos:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/134165
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/134165
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-017-1995-3
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:AC electric field
Flow focusing
Microfluidics
Drops
Descrição
Resumo:We report the production of droplet groups with a controlled number of drops in a microfluidic electro-flow focusing device under the action of an AC electric field. This regime appears for moderate voltages (500-700 V peak-to-peak) and signal frequencies between 25 and 100 Hz, much smaller than the droplet production rate ( ≈500 Hz). For this experimental conditions the production frequency of a droplet package is twice the signal frequency. Since the continuous phase flow in the microchannel is a Hagen-Poiseuille flow, the smaller droplets of a group move faster than the bigger ones leading to droplet clustering downstream.