文献类型：期刊文献

英文题名：Gravity-induced tunable asymmetric droplet splitting for flexible and precise reagent formulation on vertical digital microfluidic devices

作者：Dong, Juyue[1];Song, Zerui[1];Guo, Kunlun[1];Xu, Hang[1];Qu, Zhibei[2];Gu, Zhen[1,3];Wang, Huifeng[1,3]

机构：[1]East China Univ Sci & Technol, Key Lab Smart Mfg Energy Chem Proc Minist Educ, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China;[2]Fudan Univ, Sch Pharm, Dept Med Chem, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China;[3]East China Univ Sci & Technol, State Key Lab Bioreactor Engn, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China

年份：2026

卷号：26

期号：3

起止页码：725

外文期刊名：LAB ON A CHIP

收录：;EI(收录号：20260319938486);WOS:【SCI-EXPANDED(收录号:WOS:001665261800001)】；

基金：This research was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (2024YFA0917703), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 62103148) and the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission (contract number: 23141900900, 23J21900300).

语种：英文

外文关键词：Bioinformatics - Dielectric devices - Digital devices - Digital microfluidics - Drop breakup - Drop formation - Electrodes - Feedback control - Fluidic devices - Reagents

摘要：Digital microfluidic devices enable parallel, quantitative and flexible handling of discrete droplets via electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) force. However, droplet splitting behavior in conventional digital microfluidic devices is limited by the geometry of actuating electrodes. In this study, we proposed a gravity-induced size-tuning splitting (GITS) method, which has no requirements for specialized electrodes or complicated chip configurations. Both experimental and simulation results demonstrated that gravity facilitates the droplet generation by directionally enhancing the EWOD force in a vertical digital microfluidic chip. Further observation revealed that the size tunability was affected by the droplet volume, voltage amplitude, and especially contact line ratios between droplet and electrodes. Moreover, to achieve reliable on-chip operations, the critical size of the droplet for passive dropping was investigated, which exhibited a functional relationship with the gap height. Then GITS was implemented by integrating an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven feedback control of the contact line and the gravity induced droplet dropping. As a result, it achieved wide splitting ratios from 1 to 7.33, with the coefficient of variation below 3%. Finally, GITS was applied to manage reagents of various sizes for on-chip cell viability assays, demonstrating its potential for flexible reagent configuration in future biomedical applications.