Control of charged droplets using electrohydrodynamic repulsion for circular droplet patterning

Abstract

We report a novel method to form a circular pattern of monodisperse microdroplets using an electrohydrodynamic repulsion (EDR) mechanism. EDR is a phenomenon of electrostatical bounced microdroplets from an accumulated droplet on a bottom substrate. In addition to a regular EDR system, by placing a ring electrode between the capillary and ground substrate, two separate regions were created. A parameter study of two regions was carried out for droplet formation and falling velocity to control the radius of the generated droplets and the circular patterns independently. Based on energy conservation theory, our experimental results showed that the free-falling region exerted crucial influences on the sizes of the circular patterns.