Growth Rates of Hydrogen Microbubbles in Reacting Femtoliter Droplets

TL;DR

This study measures hydrogen microbubble growth in femtoliter droplets, revealing size and position-dependent reaction rates, with implications for chemical property control in microreactors.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed experimental and theoretical analysis of gas bubble growth dynamics in femtoliter reacting droplets, highlighting spatial reaction rate variations.

Findings

Bubble growth faster in smaller droplets

Bubble growth near the three-phase boundary is quicker

Theoretical model agrees with experimental data

Abstract

Chemical reactions in small droplets are extensively explored to accelerate the discovery of new materials, increase efficiency and specificity in catalytic biphasic conversion and in high throughput analytics. In this work, we investigate the local rate of gas-evolution reaction within femtoliter droplets immobilized on a solid surface. The growth rate of hydrogen microbubbles (> 500 nm in radius) produced from the reaction was measured online by high-resolution confocal microscopic images. The growth rate of bubbles was faster in smaller droplets, and of bubbles near the three-phase boundary in the same droplet. The results were consistent for both pure and binary reacting droplets and on substrates of different wettability. Our theoretical analysis based on diffusion, chemical reaction, and bubble growth in a steady state predicted that the concentration of the reactant diffusing from the surrounding depended on the droplet size and the bubble location inside the droplet, in good agreement with experimental results. Our results reveal that the reaction rate may be spatially non-uniform in the reacting microdroplets. The findings may have implications for formulating chemical properties and uses of these droplets.