Experiment and Simulation of a Selective Subwavelength Filter with a Low Index Contrast.

Subwavelength gratings have been of great interest recently due to their ability to eliminate multiple orders. However, high index contrast ( Δ n ∼ 3 ) is typically achieved using metals or high-index dielectrics surrounded by vacuum in order to maintain good optical selectivity. Here, we theoretically propose and experimentally realize a selective subwavelength grating using an index contrast of Δ n ∼ 1.2 without vacuum. Despite its low index contrast, our simulation and experiments show that good optical selectivity is achieved using the same physics as subwavelength gratings made of high-index contrast. Such polymer-based encapsulated gratings are easier to scale up for use in large-area applications such as photovoltaics and lighting.

Wetting Transition at a Threshold Surfactant Concentration of Evaporating Sessile Droplets on a Patterned Surface.

Wetting transitions induced by varying the components in a solution of a drying droplet can lead to its evolving shape on a textured surface. It can provide new insights on liquid pattern control through manipulating droplet solutions. We show the pronounced transitions of wetting for surfactant solution droplets drying on a micropyramid-patterned surface. At low initial surfactant concentrations, the droplet maintains an octagonal shape until the end of drying. At intermediate initial surfactant concentrations, the early octagon spreads to a square, which later evolves to a stretched rectangle. At high initial surfactant concentrations, the droplet mainly exhibits the "octagon-to-square" transition, and the square shape is maintained until the end. The octagon-to-square transition occurs at similar temporal volume-averaged surfactant concentrations for the various initial surfactant concentrations. It results from the dependence of the surface energy change of spread over the micropyramid structure on the temporal volume-averaged surfactant concentration. At high initial surfactant concentrations, the accumulation of the surfactant near the contact line driven by outward flows could raise the local viscosity and enhance the pinning effect, leading to the great suppression of the "square-to-rectangle" transition.

Evaporative characteristics of sessile nanofluid droplet on micro-structured heated surface.

Micro-structure patterned substrates attract our attention due to the special and programmable wettabilities. The interaction between the liquid and micro/nano structures gives rise to controllable spreading and thus evaporation. For exploration of the application versatility, the introduction of nanoparticles in liquid droplet results in interaction among particles, liquid and microstructures. In addition, temperature of the substrates strongly affects the spreading of the contact line and the evaporative property. The evaporation of sessile droplets of nanofluids on a micro-grooved solid surface is investigated in terms of liquid and surface properties. The patterned nickel surface used in the experiments is designed and fabricated with circular and rectangular shaped pillars whose size ratios between interval and pillars is fixed at 5. The behavior is firstly compared between nanofluid and pure liquid on substrates at room temperature. For pure water droplet, the drying time is relatively longer due to the receding of contact line which slows down the liquid evaporation. Higher concentrations of nanoparticles tend to increase the total evaporation time. With varying concentrations of graphite at nano scale from 0.02% to 0.18% with an interval at 0.04% in water droplets and the heating temperature from 22 to 85°C, the wetting and evaporation of the sessile droplets are systematically studied with discussion on the impact parameters and the resulted liquid dynamics as well as the stain. The interaction among the phases together with the heating strongly affects the internal circulation inside the droplet, the evaporative rate and the pattern of particles deposition.

Controlling Octagon-to-Square Wetting Interface Transition of Evaporating Sessile Droplet through Surfactant on Microtextured Surface.

Producing and maintaining specific liquid patterns during evaporation holds great potential for techniques of printing and coating. Here we report the control over the evolution of surfactant solution droplets on the micropyramid substrates during evaporation. The polygonal droplet shape is achieved during the drying rather than solely at the beginning. As the initial surfactant concentration is 0.04 mM, the droplet maintains its initial octagonal shape throughout the lifetime. Interestingly, the initial octagonal shape transforms into a square during the evaporation as the initial surfactant concentration reaches 0.8 mM. These findings can shed light on wetting pattern control for complex solutions required in various applications.

Octagonal Wetting Interface Evolution of Evaporating Saline Droplets on a Micropyramid Patterned Surface.

Textured surfaces have been extensively employed to investigate the dynamics, wetting phenomena, and shape of liquid droplets. Droplet shape can be controlled via the manipulation of topographic or chemical heterogeneity of a solid surface by anchoring the three-phase line at specific sites. In this study, we demonstrate that droplet shape on a topographically patterned surface can be modified by varying the concentration of salt potassium chloride (KCl) in the droplet solution. It is found that at the beginning of evaporation the octagonal shape of the solid-liquid interface is changed to a rectangle with corners cut upon increasing the salt concentration. Such a variation in the solid-liquid interface versus the salt concentration is explained by the analysis of free energy difference. It indicates that the increases in solid-liquid and liquid-vapor surface tensions by raising the salt concentration result in a favored extension of the three-phase line intersecting the micropyramid bottom sides than the counterpart intersecting the micropyramid diagonal edges. The saline droplets experience a pinning stage at first and a depinning one afterward. The onset of depinning is delayed, and at which the instantaneous contact angle is larger upon raising the salt concentration. The three-phase line which intersects the micropyramid diagonal edges recedes ahead of the one along the micropyramid bottom sides, making the octagonal wetting interface evolve toward a circle. A close view at the droplet edge indicates that the three-phase line repeats "slow slip-rapid slip" across row by row of micropyramids during the depinning stage.

Octagon to Square Wetting Area Transition of Water-Ethanol Droplets on a Micropyramid Substrate by Increasing Ethanol Concentration.

The wettability and evaporation of water-ethanol binary droplets on the substrate with micropyramid cavities are studied by controlling the initial ethanol concentrations. The droplets form octagonal initial wetting areas on the substrate. As the ethanol concentration increases, the side ratio of the initial wetting octagon increases from 1.5 at 0% ethanol concentration to 3.5 at 30% ethanol concentration. The increasing side ratio indicates that the wetting area transforms from an octagon to a square if we consider the octagon to be a square with its four corners cut. The droplets experience a pinning-depinning transition during evaporation. The pure water sessile droplet evaporation demonstrates three stages from the constant contact line (CCL) stage, and then the constant contact angle (CCA) stage, to the mixed stage. An additional mixed stage is found between the CCL and CCA stages in the evaporation of water-ethanol binary droplets due to the anisotropic depinning along the two different axes of symmetry of the octagonal wetting area. Droplet depinning occurs earlier on the patterned surface as the ethanol concentration increases.

Carboxylate-rich hybrid ligands in Mn(II) complexes as precursors for water oxidation reactions.

A new family of Mn(II) complexes stabilized by carboxylate-rich hybrid ligands has been synthesized, characterized and applied as catalytic precursors for MnO2 nanoparticles in water oxidation by (NH4)2Ce(NO3)6.

Trapping of vesicles on patterned surfaces by physisorption for potential biosensing applications.

The pre-defined selective positioning of a controlled number of vesicles on a rigid substrate is crucial in many potential applications such as diagnostics, biosensors, lab-on-a chip, microanalyses and reaction chambers. In this paper, the vesicles made up of block copolymer using Poly [-(2-methyloxazoline) -poly- (dimethylsiloxane)-poly- (2-methyloxazoline)] (ABA) with dimensions of 100-200 nm are trapped by physisorption on hydrophilic surfaces. We discuss the protocols established for vesicle trapping. The optimum conditions obtained for physisorption is 15 minutes incubation followed by one cycle of DI water rinse. Trapping of 1-10 vesicles in lobe shape micro-wells fabricated by photo lithography using photoresist on UltraStick(™) slides was demonstrated. To overcome the issue of amalgamation of emitted light from optically sensitive photoresist and fluorescently tagged vesicles, an alternative approach of Si/SiO(2) microwell array coupled with APTES (3-AminoPropylTriEthoxySilane) treated bottom surfaces was developed.