Assembly of a Versatile Micro Dispenser Using Off-The-Shelf Components for Applications in Microfluidics. Issue 1686 (21st November 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fan, R.; Huang, T.J.; Huang, Y.; Shi, Q.; Mohar, Harjyot; O, Annie; Jimenez, Steven; Munoz, Leonel; Hernandez, Victor; Estrada, Arturo; Fan, Sewan; Fatuzzo, Laura
• Is Part Of: MRS proceedings. Issue 1686:(2014)
• Publication Date: 2014-11-21
• Subjects: Electrical engineering -- Congresses; Physics -- Congresses; Materials -- Research -- Congresses; Materials science -- Congresses; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1557/opl.2014.926
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0272-9172

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="normal"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>We designed and constructed a drop-on-demand (DOD) droplet dispenser using the piezo inkjet technique that is simple to construct and operate and makes use of readily available components. The droplet dispenser can be easily fitted with cost effective glass nozzles and can be readily tuned to produce consistent drop sizes. The dynamics of the droplet motion are obtained using a calibrated analog video imaging system. We observed very high accelerations for the ejected droplets that corroborate with the applied drive pulse amplitudes. The acceleration measured, near the ejection nozzle, was many times the acceleration of gravity with the largest value of 34g’s. We successfully dispensed glycol water solutions and aqueous suspensions of titanium oxide nanoparticles, with values greater than 10 in the measured pH. For the inkjet droplets deposited on smooth gold/chromium substrates (±3nm surface roughness variation), we observed the well-known coffee ring effect using optical microscopy and nanoparticle morphology using an atomic force microscope.</p> </abstract>