Redistribution and removal of particles from drop surfaces

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Abstract

It was recently shown by us that particles distributed on the surface of a drop can be concentrated at the poles or equator of the drop by subjecting the latter to a uniform electric field. In this paper, we present experimental results for the dependence of the dielectrophoretic force on the parameters of the system such as the particles' and drop's radii and the dielectric properties of the fluids and particles, and define a dimensionless parameter regime for which the technique can work. Specifically, we show that if the drop radius is larger than a critical value, that depends on the physical properties of the drop and ambient fluids and the particles, it is not possible to concentrate particles and thus clean the drop of the particles it carries at its surface because the drop breaks or tip-streams at an electric field intensity smaller than that needed for concentrating particles. However, since the dielectrophoretic force varies inversely with the drop radius, the effectiveness of the concentration mechanism increases with decreasing drop size, and therefore the technique is guaranteed to work provided the drop radius is sufficiently small. Copyright © 2010 by ASME.

Identifier

77954246850 (Scopus)

ISBN

[9780791843826]

Publication Title

ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition Proceedings

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1115/IMECE2009-11936

First Page

417

Last Page

426

Issue

PART A

Volume

9

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS