Related papers: Stiffness-guided motion of a droplet on a solid su…
Liquid droplets usually wet smooth and homogeneous substrates isotropically. Recent research works have revealed that droplets sit, slide and spread anisotropically on uniaxially stretched soft substrates, showing an enhanced wettability…
Nanodroplets residing near wedges or edges of solid substrates exhibit a disjoining pressure induced dynamics. Our nanoscale hydrodynamic calculations reveal that non-volatile droplets are attracted or repelled from edges or wedges…
We investigate the dynamics of nanoscale droplets in the vicinity of chemical steps which separate parts of a substrate with different wettabilities. Due to long-ranged dispersion forces, nanodroplets positioned on one side of the step…
Motile biological cells in tissue often display the phenomenon of durotaxis, i.e. they tend to move towards stiffer parts of substrate tissue. The mechanism for this behavior is not completely understood. We consider simplified models for…
Ice accumulation hinders the performance of, and poses safety threats for infrastructure both on the ground and in the air. Previously, rationally designed superhydrophobic surfaces have demonstrated some potential as a passive means to…
The transport of small quantities of liquid on a solid surface is inhibited by the resistance to motion caused by the contact between the liquid and the solid. To overcome such resistance, motion can be externally driven through gradients…
We study chemically driven running droplets on a partially wetting solid substrate by means of coupled evolution equations for the thickness profile of the droplets and the density profile of an adsorbate layer. Two models are introduced…
We study the rolling and sliding motion of droplets on a corrugated substrate by Molecular Dynamics simulations. Droplets are driven by an external body force (gravity) and we investigate the velocity profile and dissipation mechanisms in…
We demonstrate \textit{bendotaxis}, a novel mechanism for droplet self-transport at small scales. A combination of bending and capillarity in a thin channel causes a pressure gradient that, in turn, results in the spontaneous movement of a…
Droplet-based microfluidics has emerged as a powerful technology for the miniaturization and automation of biochemical assays. The replacement of surfactants by nanoparticles as interfacial stabilizers has gained increasing interest.…
The effect of a step wise change in the pillar density on the dynamics of droplets is investigated via three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann simulations. For the same pillar density gradient but different pillar arrangements, both motion over…
Living tissues undergo wetting transitions: On a surface, they can either form a droplet-like cell aggregate or spread as a monolayer of migrating cells. Tissue wetting depends not only on the chemical but also on the mechanical properties…
Molecular dynamics studies of nono-sized rigid grains, droplets and bubbles in nano-sized pores indicate that the drag force may have a hydrodynamic form if the moving object is dense and small compared to the pore diameter. Otherwise, the…
Targeting specific technological applications requires the control of nanoparticle properties, especially the crystalline polymorph. Freezing a nanodroplet deposited on a solid substrate leads to the formation of crystalline structures. We…
Droplet motion on surfaces influences phenomena as diverse as microfluidic liquid handling, printing technology and micro-organism migration. Typically, droplet motion is achieved by inducing energy gradients on a substrate or flow on the…
We report an experimental investigation of the spontaneous motion of liquid droplets on soft gels with a crosslinking gradient. By systematically adjusting the spatial difference in crosslinking density, we observed that millimeter-sized…
Biological cells are able to adapt their behaviour in response to environmental cues. Durotaxis is a phenomenon in which cells adjust their migration depending on the mechanical properties of a surrounding substrate. Although durotaxis has…
A new mechanism for the passive removal of drop on a horizontal surface is described that does not require pre-fabrication of a surface energy gradient. The method relies upon the preparation of alternate hydrophilic/hydrophobic stripes on…
In recent decades novel solid substrates have been designed which change their wettability in response to light or an electrostatic field. Here, we investigate a droplet on substrates with oscillating uniform wettability by varying minimium…
Anisotropically wetting substrates enable useful control of droplet behavior across a range of applications. Usually, these involve chemically or physically patterning the substrate surface, or applying gradients in properties like…