Precisely manipulating various liquids is essential in
many fields and unlike solid objects, fluids are intrinsically
divisible. Fluids are also sticky with appropriate functions for
lossless manipulation to prevent loss and contamination. In a new
report now published on Science Advances, Wei Li and colleagues in
mechanical engineering and research and innovation in China
presented photopyroelectric microfluidics to meet such diverse
requirements. The fluidic platform facilitated the development of a
unique wavy dielectrophoretic force field from a single beam of
light to remarkably perform the desired loss-free manipulation of
droplets and function as a “magic” wetting-proof surface. The
liquid platform could navigate, fuse, pinch and cleave fluids on
demand to establish cargo carriers with droplet wheels and has
potential to upgrade the maximum concentration of deliverables such
as protein by 4000-fold.
