Parallel Dosing Using a Superhydrophobic, Heated Plate by Evaporation Induced Droplet Transport

A highly parallelizable approach for the precise dosing of homogenous liquids is presented. Droplets of the dosing liquid rest on a superhydrophobic plate featuring a 3x3 array of holes, which evaporate with time and therefore reduce in size. If the size of the droplets is small enough, they are able to pass through the holes, which can be subsequently used for further applications. Furthermore, microheaters are screen-printed around the holes of the superhydrophobic plate, in order to accelerate the evaporation process. Experimental data regarding temperature distribution and the improvement due to the addition of the microheaters to the setup is provided.