Trapping, coalescence, and splitting of drops in an ultrasound-actuated microcavity
(2025) In Soft Matter 21(25). p.5102-5116- Abstract
Droplets are sophisticated micro-compartments crucial for lab-on-a-chip and bio-medical applications. There have been significant efforts towards generating monodisperse droplets as the uniformity of droplets affects performance. Recently, we introduced a new method to continuously reform existing emulsions improving monodispersity in an ultrasound-actuated microcavity via a trap-coalesce-split mechanism. Here, we study the kinematics and dynamics of the phenomena to uncover the underlying physics and discuss the operating regime. We experimentally study the kinematical behavior by considering the time evolution of the drop-plug system and the effect of ultrasound power on these variations. We study the dynamics of the system via... (More)
Droplets are sophisticated micro-compartments crucial for lab-on-a-chip and bio-medical applications. There have been significant efforts towards generating monodisperse droplets as the uniformity of droplets affects performance. Recently, we introduced a new method to continuously reform existing emulsions improving monodispersity in an ultrasound-actuated microcavity via a trap-coalesce-split mechanism. Here, we study the kinematics and dynamics of the phenomena to uncover the underlying physics and discuss the operating regime. We experimentally study the kinematical behavior by considering the time evolution of the drop-plug system and the effect of ultrasound power on these variations. We study the dynamics of the system via numerical simulations by considering the primary and secondary acoustic radiation forces, viscous drag force, and interfacial tension force. Remarkably, our study reveals that a combination of richly interconnected trapping, coalescence, and splitting phenomena is crucial for an improved understanding of acousto-microfluidic droplet generation. Our study will find relevance in advancing droplet handling and downstream integration of droplet-based operations in continuous-flow microfluidic systems.
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- author
- Malik, Lokesh ; Nandy, Subhas ; Satpathi, Niladri Sekhar ; Ghosh, Debasish ; Laurell, Thomas LU and Sen, Ashis Kumar
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-05-26
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Soft Matter
- volume
- 21
- issue
- 25
- pages
- 15 pages
- publisher
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:40471093
- scopus:105008010220
- ISSN
- 1744-683X
- DOI
- 10.1039/d5sm00217f
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Royal Society of Chemistry.
- id
- eca0ae29-b388-45cc-bfce-fac1d70063a6
- date added to LUP
- 2025-12-19 14:01:27
- date last changed
- 2025-12-19 14:02:41
@article{eca0ae29-b388-45cc-bfce-fac1d70063a6,
abstract = {{<p>Droplets are sophisticated micro-compartments crucial for lab-on-a-chip and bio-medical applications. There have been significant efforts towards generating monodisperse droplets as the uniformity of droplets affects performance. Recently, we introduced a new method to continuously reform existing emulsions improving monodispersity in an ultrasound-actuated microcavity via a trap-coalesce-split mechanism. Here, we study the kinematics and dynamics of the phenomena to uncover the underlying physics and discuss the operating regime. We experimentally study the kinematical behavior by considering the time evolution of the drop-plug system and the effect of ultrasound power on these variations. We study the dynamics of the system via numerical simulations by considering the primary and secondary acoustic radiation forces, viscous drag force, and interfacial tension force. Remarkably, our study reveals that a combination of richly interconnected trapping, coalescence, and splitting phenomena is crucial for an improved understanding of acousto-microfluidic droplet generation. Our study will find relevance in advancing droplet handling and downstream integration of droplet-based operations in continuous-flow microfluidic systems.</p>}},
author = {{Malik, Lokesh and Nandy, Subhas and Satpathi, Niladri Sekhar and Ghosh, Debasish and Laurell, Thomas and Sen, Ashis Kumar}},
issn = {{1744-683X}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{05}},
number = {{25}},
pages = {{5102--5116}},
publisher = {{Royal Society of Chemistry}},
series = {{Soft Matter}},
title = {{Trapping, coalescence, and splitting of drops in an ultrasound-actuated microcavity}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d5sm00217f}},
doi = {{10.1039/d5sm00217f}},
volume = {{21}},
year = {{2025}},
}