Magnetofluidic mixing of a ferrofluid droplet under the influence of time-dependent external field

TL;DR

This study investigates how a time-dependent magnetic field enhances the mixing of ferrofluid droplets with non-magnetic fluids on open microfluidic surfaces, combining experimental visualization, mass transfer quantification, and numerical simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, wireless, low-cost micromixing method leveraging magnetic nanoparticle dynamics under time-varying fields, with comprehensive experimental and simulation analysis.

Findings

Magnetic nanoparticles exhibit complex movement under time-dependent fields.

Interfacial instability is enhanced by magnetic susceptibility mismatch.

Mixing efficiency is improved through convective flow induced by nanoparticle dynamics.

Abstract

We report the experimental investigations on the mixing of a ferrofluid droplet with a non-magnetic fluid in the presence of a time-dependent magnetic field on an open surface microfluidic platform. The bright field visualization technique, in combination with the micro-PIV analysis, is carried out to explore the internal hydrodynamics of the ferrofluid droplet. Also, using the Laser-induced fluorescence (micro-LIF) technique, we quantify the mass transfer occurring between the two droplets, which in effect, determines the underlying mixing performance under the modulation of the frequency of the applied magnetic field. We show that the magnetic nanoparticles exhibit complex spatio-temporal movement inside the ferrofluid droplet domain under the influence of a time-dependent magnetic field, which, in turn, promotes the mixing efficiency in the convective mixing regime. Our analysis establishes that the movement of magnetic nanoparticles in presence of the time-periodic field strengthens the interfacial instability, which acts like a sparking agent to initiate an augmented mixing in the present scenario. By performing numerical simulations, we also review the onset of interfacial instability, mainly stemming from the susceptibility mismatch between the magnetic and non-magnetic fluids. Inferences of the present analysis, which focuses on the simple, wireless, robust, and low-cost open surface micromixing mechanism, will provide a potential solution for rapid droplets mixing without requiring pH level or ion concentration dependency of the fluids.