The physics of microdroplets (Q2898738)

The book is devoted to the study of droplets and interfaces in steady or quasisteady state. The first two chapters are standard and introduce the surface tension, the Laplace and Young laws, minimal energy principle and some stability considerations (Plateau-Rayleigh and double-bubble instabilities). Chapters 3--5 deal with droplet geometry (shape, surface and volume) for many different configurations: droplets between two parallel and non-parallel planes, sessile droplets, and droplets in a corner, including Concus-Finn relations for contact angles. Properly speaking, the investigation of the behavior of droplets in microwells and in closed microchannels starts from Chapter 6. Here and in Chapter 7 the reader is informed about wetting and non-wetting plugs, about the trains of droplets, the capillary rise, capillary pumping and capillary valving. Open microluidics and contact of droplets with particles and interfaces are topics of Chapters 8 and 9. The authors examine capillary flows in various grooves and present the theory of suspended microfluidics, giving applications to droplet dispensing. Different manipulations with droplets are described, including contact, potential engulfment, encapsulation of polymerized droplets and capillary assemblies. The final Chapters 10 and 11 treat digital microfluidics and some approaches to 3D-microelectronics by assembling stacks of chips on a wafer.NEWLINENEWLINE The references are placed at the end of each chapter. The text does not contain exercises for students, but many impressive color pictures and photographs illustrate richly the material. In the reviewer's opinion, this well-organized and clearly written book can be highly recommended to researchers with an interest in microfluidic systems and nanotechnology.