An all-acoustic toolbox for performing unit operations and their combinations on levitated droplets.

ABSTRACT: Automatic and contactless manipulation of droplets in mid-air has wide potential applications from materials processing to biochemistry and pharmaceutical development. To perform (bio)chemical reactions in a contactless and automated fashion, herein, we report an all-acoustic toolbox for performing unit operations (generate, hold, move and merge) on droplets with integrated optical detection. The toolbox was realized using phased arrays of ultrasound transducers in combination with pump and capillary nozzles to generate pendant droplets of required volumes and pulling them away from the tip of the nozzles using acoustic forces, then using the acoustic forces to move and merge droplets followed by quantitative measurements using the integrated optical detection. This is an unprecedented rep

SUBMITTER: Li J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12552645 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature