Electrocapillary force actuation of microfluidic elements

Electrocapillary force can be used to displace a mercury droplet confined in microfluidic channels. When the plug is moved into an area of a thin membrane of low Young's module, the surface tension of the confined mercury droplet provides a force to deform the membrane. We show that this effect, together with the electrocapillary force controlled movement, can be used for the actuation of microfluidic elements. We applied this technique to micro valves obtained by using multilayer soft-lithography techniques. Fabrication of integrated microelectrodes as well as single and multiple mercury plugs using microfluidic techniques has also been shown, thereby providing a set of technology for more detailed investigations.