Droplets on substrates with oscillating wettability

TL;DR

This paper investigates the dynamic behavior of droplets on substrates with oscillating wettability, revealing non-reciprocal shape changes and fluid circulation that could enable controlled microfluidic transport.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical study of droplet oscillations on substrates with time-varying wettability, highlighting deviations from classical models and demonstrating potential for microfluidic applications.

Findings

Droplets perform steady oscillations with amplitude decreasing at higher frequencies.

Significant deviations from the spherical-cap model occur at fast oscillations.

Non-reciprocal shape changes induce controllable fluid circulation inside the droplet.

Abstract

In recent decades novel solid substrates have been designed which change their wettability in response to light or an electrostatic field. Here, we investigate a droplet on substrates with oscillating uniform wettability by varying minimium and maximum contact angles and frequency. To simulate this situation, we use our previous work [Grawitter and Stark, Soft Matter 17, 2454 (2021)], where we implemented the boundary element method in combination with the Cox-Voinov law for the contact-line velocity, to determine the fluid flow inside a droplet. After a transient regime the droplet performs steady oscillations, the amplitude of which decreases with increasing frequency. For slow oscillations our numerical results agree well with the linearized spherical-cap model. They collapse on a master curve when we rescale frequency by a characteristic relaxation time. In contrast, for fast oscillations we observe significant deviations from the master curve. The decay of the susceptibility is weaker and the phase shift between oscillations in wettability and contact angle stays below the predicted $\pi/2$. The reason becomes obvious when studying the combined dynamics of droplet height and contact angle. It reveals non-reciprocal shape changes during one oscillation period even at low frequencies due to the induced fluid flow inside the droplet, which are not captured by the spherical-cap model. Similar periodic non-reciprocal shape changes occur at low frequencies when the droplet is placed on an oscillating nonuniform wettability profile with six-fold symmetry. Such profiles are inspired by the light intensity pattern of Laguerre-Gauss laser modes. Since the non-reciprocal shape changes induce fluid circulation, which is controllable from the outside, our findings envisage to design targeted microfluidic transport of solutes inside the droplet.