Self-driven droplet transport: Effect of wettability gradient and confinement

Surface tension driven droplet transport in an open surface is increasingly becoming popular for various microfluidic applications. In this work, efficient transport of a glycerin droplet on an open wettability gradient surface with controlled wettability and confinement is numerically investigated. Nondimensional track width w* (ratio of the width of the wettability gradient track w and the initial droplet diameter d0) of a wettability gradient track laid on a superhydrophobic background represents wettability confinement. A lower value of w* represents higher wettability confinement. Droplet behavior changes for different wettability confinements and gradients of the track. It is found that droplet velocity is a function of the wettability confinement and the gradient; droplet transport velocity is maximum for w* = 0.8. Higher confinement (w* < 0.8) leads to a significant reduction in droplet velocity. Droplet transport characteristics on hydrophilic–superhydrophilic, hydrophobic–superhydrophilic, and superhydrophobic–superhydrophilic tracks are studied. It is found that for a fixed length of the track, droplet velocity is maximum for the superhydrophobic–superhydrophilic track. A droplet transport regime is demonstrated for a wettability gradient track with different confinements, and it is found that the droplet is transported for wettability confinement w* > 0.6 irrespective of the wettability gradient of the track. These findings provide valuable insight into efficient droplet manipulation in microfluidic devices.