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Continuous-wave lasers generated bubbles in microfluidic channels are proposed for applications such as needle-free jet injection due to their small size and affordable price of these lasers. However, water is transparent in the visible and near-IR regime, where the affordable diode lasers operate. Therefore a dye is required for absorption, which is often unwanted in thermocavitation applications such as vaccines or cosmetics. In this work we explore a different mechanism of the absorption of optical energy. The microfluidic channel wall is partially covered with a thin gold layer which absorbs light from a blue laser diode. This surface absorption is compared with the conventional volumetric absorption by a red dye. The results show that this surface absorption can be used to generate bubbles without the requirement of a dye. However, the generated bubbles are smaller and grow slower when compared to the dye-generated bubbles. Furthermore, heat dissipation in the glass channel walls affect the overall efficiency. Finally, degradation of the gold layer over time reduces the reproducibility and limits its lifetime. Further experiments and simulations are proposed to potentially solve these problems and optimize the bubble formation. Our findings can inform the design and operation of microfluidic devices used in phase transition experiments and other cavitation phenomena, such as jet injectors or liquid dispensing for bio-engineering.

Studies of liquid jet impacts onto a deep liquid pool are of great significance for a multitude of engineering and environmental applications. During jet impact, the free surface of the pool deforms and a cavity is generated. Simultaneously, the free surface of the cavity extends radially outward and forms a rim. Eventually the cavity collapses by means of gas inertia and surface tension. In this work we study numerically such cavity collapse, under different impact velocities and ambient gas density conditions. An axisymmetric numerical model, based on the volume of fluid method is constructed in Basilisk C. This model is validated by qualitative and quantitative comparison with theory and experiments, in a parameter range that has not been previously explored. Our results show two distinct regimes in the cavity collapse mechanism. By considering forces pulling along the interface, we derive scaling arguments for the time of closure and maximum radius of the cavity, based on the Weber number. For jets with uniform constant velocity from tip to tail and $We \leq 150$ the cavity closure is capillary dominated and happens below the surface (deep seal). In contrast, for $We \geq 200$ the cavity closure happens above the surface (surface seal) and is dominated by the gas entrainment and the pressure gradient that it causes. Our results provide information for understanding pollutant transport during droplet impacts on large bodies of water, and other engineering application, like additive manufacturing, lithography and needle-free injections.

Thermocavitation, the creation of a vapor bubble by heating a liquid with a continuous-wave laser, has been studied for a wide range of applications. Examples include the development of an actuator for needle-free jet injectors, as the pumping mechanism in microfluidic channels and crystallization or nanoparticle synthesis. Optimal use in these applications require control over the dynamics of the laser-generated bubble through the laser power and beam radius. In contrast to pulsed lasers, for continuous-wave lasers the influence of the laser beam radius on the bubble characteristics is not fully understood. Here, we present a novel way to control the size of the beam from an optical fiber by changing the distance from the glass-liquid interface. We show that the increase in beam size results in a longer nucleation time. Numerical simulations of the experiment show that the maximum temperature at the moment of nucleation is 237$\pm$5{\deg}C and independent of laser parameters. Due to delayed nucleation for larger beam sizes, more energy is absorbed by the liquid at the nucleation instant. Consequently, a larger beam size results in a faster growing bubble, producing the same effect as reducing the laser power. We conclude that the total bubble energy only depends on the amount of absorbed optical energy and it is independent of the beam radius and laser power for any amount of absorbed energy. This effect contrasts with pulsed lasers, where an increase in beam radius results in a reduction of bubble energy. Our results are of relevance for the use of continuous-wave laser-actuated cavitation in needle-free jet injectors as well as other applications of thermocavitation in microfluidic confinement.

A laser pulse focused near the closed end of a glass capillary partially filled with water creates a vapor bubble and an associated pressure wave. The pressure wave travels through the liquid toward the meniscus where it is reflected, creating a fast, focused microjet. In this study, we selectively coat the hydrophilic glass capillaries with hydrophobic strips along the capillary. The result after filling the capillary is a static meniscus which has a curvature markedly different than an unmodified capillary. This tilting asymmetry in the static meniscus alters the trajectory of the ensuing jets. The hydrophobic strips also influence the advancing contact line and receding contact line as the vapor bubble expands and collapses. We present thirteen different permutations of this system which includes three geometries and four coating schemes. The combination of geometry and coatings influences the jet breakup, the resulting drop size distribution, the trajectory of the jet tip, and the consistency of jet characteristics across trials. The inclusion of hydrophobic strips promotes jetting in line with the channel axis, with the most effective arrangement dependent on channel size.

Bubbles generated with lasers under confinement have been investigated for their potential use as the driving mechanism for liquid micro-jets in various microfluidic devices, such as needle free jet injectors. Here, we report on the study of bubble formation by a continuous-wave (CW) and a pulsed laser inside an open-ended microfluidic capillary. This results in a direct comparison between bubbles generated by laser sources emitting light in different time scales (ms and ns). The bubble kinetics represents an important parameter because it determines the available kinetic energy for a subsequent liquid jet. We show that the bubble growth rate increases linearly with the delivered energy for both the CW and the pulsed laser. Experiments show that at equal absorption coefficient, the bubble growth for both lasers is similar, which indicates that they can be used interchangeably for a jet generation. However, bubbles generated by a CW laser require more optical energy, which is due to heat dissipation. Furthermore, the bubbles generated by the CW laser show a slightly larger variation in size and growth rate for identical initial conditions, which we attribute to the stochastic nature of thermocavitation.

We report a closed-loop control system for paramagnetic catalytically self-propelled Janus microrobots. We achieve this control by employing electromagnetic coils that direct the magnetic field in a desired orientation to steer the microrobots. The microrobots move due to the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, during which they align themselves to the magnetic torques applied to them. Because the angle between their direction of motion and their magnetic orientation is a priori unknown, an algorithm is used to determine this angular offset and adjust the magnetic field appropriately. The microrobots are located using real-time particle tracking that integrates with a video camera. A target location or desired trajectory can be drawn by the user for the microrobots to follow., Comment: micro-robots, magnetic-control, closed-loop, computer-vision

The collapse of a gas or vapour bubble near a non-porous boundary is directed at the boundary due to the asymmetry induced by the nearby boundary. High surface pressure and shear stress from this collapse can damage, or clean, the surface. A porous boundary, such as a filter, would act similarly to a non-porous boundary but with reduced asymmetry and thus reduced effect. Prior research has measured the cleaning effect of bubbles on filters using ultrasonic cleaning, but it is not known how the bubble dynamics are fundamentally affected by the porosity of the surface. We address this question experimentally by investigating how the standoff distance, porosity, pore size, and pore shape affect two collapse properties: bubble displacement and bubble rebound size. We show that these properties depend primarily on the standoff distance and porosity of the boundary and extend a previously developed numerical model that approximates this behaviour. Using the numerical model in combination with experimental data, we show that bubble displacement and bubble rebound size each collapse onto respective single curves.

Electromagnetic systems have been used extensively for the control magnetically actuated objects, such as in microrheology and microrobotics research. Therefore, optimizing the design of such systems is highly desired. Some of the features that are lacking in most current designs are compactness, portability, and versatility. Portability is especially relevant for biomedical applications in which in vivo or in vitro testing may be conducted in locations away from the laboratory microscope. This document describes the design, fabrication and implementation of a compact, low cost, versatile, and user friendly device (the ModMag) capable of controlling multiple electromagnetic setups, including a two-dimensional 4-coil traditional configuration, a 3-dimensional Helmholtz configuration, and a 3-dimensional magnetic tweezer configuration. All electronics and circuitry for powering the systems is contained in a compact 10"x6"x3" system which includes a 10" touchscreen. A graphical user interface provides additional ease of use. The system can also be controlled remotely, allowing for more flexibility and the ability to interface with other software running on the remote computer such as propriety camera software. Aside from the software and circuitry, we also describe the design of the electromagnetic coil setups and provide examples of the use of the ModMag in experiments.

Injecting with needles causes fear, pain and contamination risks. Billions of injections every year also cause environmental burden in terms of material consumption and waste. Controlled microfluidic-jet injection systems offer a needle-free alternative. However, understanding the relation between jet parameters and resulting injection depth are needed to enable targeting specific skin layers, and enhance the pharmacokinetics of various therapeutic compounds. The complexity of skin, its opacity and non-linear mechanical properties, pose a technological challenge. Hence the use of surrogates is instrumental to understand how to inject without needles. In particular, reducing undesired splashing upon jet impact and liquid squeeze-out after injection are needed to minimize infection risks and ensure accurate dosage. Therefore, in this paper we explore how microfluidic jet characteristics influence the impact outcome on a range of materials as skin surrogate. Jets with velocities between 7 - 77 m/s and diameters 35 - 130 $\mu$m were directed at substrates with shear moduli between 0.2 kPa and 26 GPa. We found seven different regimes depending on jet inertia and substrate shear modulus. Furthermore, three distinct transition regions were identified as the thresholds between regimes: i) spreading/splashing threshold, ii) dimple formation threshold, and iii) plastic/elastic deformation threshold. These thresholds allow predicting the required jet velocity and diameter to inject substrates with known shear modulus. We found that jet velocity is a better predictor for the injection depth compared to the Weber number, as the jet diameter does not influence the injection depth. Our findings are relevant for advancing needle-free injection research, because the shear modulus of skin depends on multiple factors, such as ethnicity, body part and environmental conditions.

The impact of solid and liquid objects (projectiles) onto liquids and soft solids (targets) generally results on the creation and expansion of an air cavity inside the impacted objects. The dynamics of cavity expansion and collapse depends on the projectile inertia as well as on the target properties. In this paper we study the impact of microfluidic jets generated by thermocavitation processes on a capillary bridge between two parallel planar walls. Different capillary bridge types were studied, Newtonian liquids, viscoelastic liquids and agarose gels. Thus, we compare the cavity formation and collapse between a wide range of material properties. Moreover, we model the critical impact velocity for a jet to traverse a capillary bridge type. Our results show that agarose gels with a storage modulus lower that 176 Pa can be modelled as a liquid for this transition. However, the predicted transition deviates for agarose gels with higher storage modulus. Additionally, we show different types of cavity collapse, depending on the Weber number and the capillary bridge properties. We conclude that the type of collapse determines the number and size of entrained bubbles. Furthermore, we study the effects of wettability on the adhesion forces and contact line dissipation. We conclude that upon cavity collapse, for hydrophobic walls a Worthington jet is energetically favourable. In contrast, for hydrophilic walls, the contact line dissipation is in the same order of magnitude of the energy of the impacted jet, suppressing the Worthington jet formation. Our results provide strategies for preventing bubble entrapment and give an estimation of the cavity dynamics for needle-free injection applications and additive manufacturing among other applications.

Having the advantage of being relatively fast and powerful, as well as readily fabricated, spherical bubble-propelled microrobots are particularly well suited for applications such as cargo delivery, micromanipulation, and biological or environmental remediation. However, there have been limited examples of control and manipulation with these microrobots and few studies on their dynamics. Here we investigate the bubble formation and dynamics of both hemispherically coated Janus microrobots as well as GLAD "patchy" microrobots which not only provide for an interesting comparison, but also exhibit useful properties in their own right. Specifically, we find that the patchy microrobots have a tendency to produce smaller bubbles and undergo smoother motion, properties that are beneficial for applications such as precise micro-manipulation, for example. We demonstrate manipulation and assemble of passive spheres on a substrate as well as at an air-liquid interface. We also characterize the propulsion and bubble formation of both types of microrobots and find that previously proposed theories insufficiently describe their motion and bubble bursting mechanism. Additionally, we observe that the microrobots, which reside at the air-liquid interface, demonstrate positive gravitaxis towards the droplet edges which we attribute to a torque resulting from opposing downward and buoyant forces on the microrobot.

High speed microfluidic jets can be generated by a thermocavitation process: from the evaporation of the liquid inside a microfluidic channel, a rapidly expanding bubble is formed and generates a jet through a flow focusing effect. Here, we study the impact and traversing of such jets on a pendant liquid droplet. Upon impact, an expanding cavity is created, and, above a critical impact velocity, the jet traverses the entire droplet. We predict the critical traversing velocity (i) from a simple energy balance and (ii) by comparing the Young-Laplace and dynamic pressures in the cavity that is created during impact. We contrast the model predictions against experiments, in which we vary the liquid properties of the pendant droplet and find good agreement. In addition, we asses how surfactants and viscoelastic effects influence the critical impact velocity. Our results are relevant for the study of needle-free injections, where jets of similar velocities and dimensions are being used. Given the simplicity of our system we can systematically vary the target properties and unravel their effect on the impact dynamics, a true challenge when injecting into real skin.

The collapse of a gas or vapour bubble near a solid boundary produces a jet directed towards the boundary. High surface pressure and shear stress induced by this jet can damage, or clean, the surface. More complex geometries will result in changes in collapse behaviour, in particular the direction of the jet. The majority of prior research has focused on simple flat boundaries or limited cases with analytic solutions. We numerically and experimentally investigate how a slot in a flat boundary affects the jet direction for a single bubble. We use a boundary element model to predict how the jet direction depends on key geometric parameters and show that the results collapse to a single curve when the parameters are normalised appropriately. We then experimentally validate the predictions using laser-induced cavitation and compare the experimental results to the predicted dependencies. This research reveals a tendency for the jet to be directed away from a slot and shows that the jet direction is independent of slot height for slots of sufficient height.

Illuminating a water solution with a focused continuous wave laser produces a strong local heating of the liquid that leads to the nucleation of bubbles, also known as thermocavitation. During the growth of the bubble, the surrounding liquid is expelled from the constraining microfluidic channel through a nozzle, creating a jet. The characteristics of the resulting liquid jet was imaged using ultra-fast imaging techniques. Here, we provide a phenomenological description of the jet shapes and velocities, and compare them with a Boundary Integral numerical model. We define the parameter regime, varying jet speed, taper geometry and liquid volume, for optimal printing, injection and spray applications. These results are important for the design of energy-efficient needle-free jet injectors based on microfluidic thermocavitation.

Bubbles are known to influence energy and mass transfer in gas evolving electrodes. However, we lack a detailed understanding on the intricate dependencies between bubble evolution processes and electrochemical phenomena. This review discusses our current knowledge on the effects of bubbles on electrochemical systems with the aim to identify opportunities and motivate future research in this area. We first provide a base background on the physics of bubble evolution as it relates to electrochemical processes. Then we outline how bubbles affect energy efficiency of electrode processes, detailing the bubble-induced impacts on activation, ohmic and concentration overpotentials. Lastly, we describe different strategies to mitigate losses and how to exploit bubbles to enhance electrochemical reactions., Comment: Joule(2020)

The topological properties of many materials are central to their behavior, with the dynamics of topological defects being particularly important to intrinsically out-of-equilibrium, active materials. In this paper, local manipulation of the ordering, dynamics, and topological properties of microtubule-based extensile active nematic films is demonstrated in a joint experimental and simulation study. Hydrodynamic stresses created by magnetically actuated rotation of disk-shaped colloids in proximity to the films compete with internal stresses in the active nematic, enabling local control of the motion of the +1/2 charge topological defects that are intrinsic to spontaneously turbulent active films. Sufficiently large applied stresses drive the formation of +1 charge topological vortices in the director field through the merger of two +1/2 defects. The directed motion of the defects is accompanied by ordering of the vorticity and velocity of the active flows within the film that is qualitatively unlike the response of passive viscous films. Many features of the film's response to the disk are captured by Lattice Boltzmann simulations, leading to insight into the anomalous viscoelastic nature of the active nematic. The topological vortex formation is accompanied by a rheological instability in the film that leads to significant increase in the flow velocities. Comparison of the velocity profile in vicinity of the vortex with fluid-dynamics calculations provides an estimate of film viscosity.

The formation, growth and detachment of gas bubbles on electrodes are omnipresent in electrolysis and other gas-producing chemical processes. To better understand their role in the mass transfer efficiency, we perform experiments involving successive bubble nucleations from a predefined nucleation site which consists of a superhydrophobic pit on top of a micromachined pillar. The experiments on bubble nucleation at these spots permit the comparison of mass transfer phenomena connected to electrolytically generated H$_2$ bubbles with the better-understood evolution of CO$_2$ bubbles in pressure-controlled supersaturated solutions. In both cases, bubbles grow in a diffusion-dominated regime. For CO$_2$ bubbles, it is found that the growth rate coefficient of subsequent bubbles always decreases due to the effect of gas depletion. In contrast, during constant current electrolysis, the bubble growth rates are affected by the evolution of a boundary layer of dissolved H$_2$ gas near the flat electrode which competes with gas depletion. This competition results in three distinct regimes. Initially, the bubble growth slows down with each new bubble in the succession due to the dominant depletion of the newly-formed concentration boundary layer. In later stages, the growth rate increases due to a local increase of gas supersaturation caused by the continuous gas production and finally levels off to an approximate steady growth rate. The gas transport efficiency associated with the electrolytic bubble succession follows a similar trend in time. Finally, for both H$_2$ and CO$_2$ bubbles, detachment mostly occurs at smaller radii than theory predicts and at a surprisingly wide spread of sizes. A number of explanations are proposed, but the ultimate origin of the spreading of the results remains elusive.

High speed imaging was used to capture the fast dynamics of two injection methods. The first one and perhaps the oldest known, is based on solid needles and used for dermal pigmentation, or tattooing. The second, is a novel needle-free micro-jet injector based on thermocavitation. We performed injections in agarose gel skin surrogates, and studied both methods using ink formulations with different fluidic properties to understand better the end-point injection. Both methods were used to inject water and a glycerin-water mixture. Commercial inks were used with the tattoo machine and compared with the other liquids injected. The agarose gel was kept stationary or in motion at a constant speed, along a plane perpendicular to the needle. The agarose deformation process due to the solid needle injection was also studied. The advantages and limitations of both methods are discussed, and we conclude that micro-jet injection has better performance than solid injection when comparing several quantities for three different liquids, such as the energy and volumetric delivery efficiencies per injection, depth and width of penetrations. A newly defined dimensionless quantity, the penetration strength, is used to indicate potential excessive damage to skin surrogates. Needle-free methods, such as the micro-jet injector here presented, could reduce the environmental impact of used needles, and benefit the health of millions of people that use needles on a daily basis for medical and cosmetic use.