Soft colloidal probes for AFM force measurements between water droplets in oil
Type
ArticleKAUST Department
Clean Combustion Research CenterHigh-Speed Fluids Imaging Laboratory
Mechanical Engineering Program
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Date
2014-11Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/575721
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Here we introduce an extension of the atomic force microscopy (AFM) colloidal probe technique, as a simple and reliable experimental approach to measure the interaction forces between small water droplets (~80-160. μm) dispersed in oil. Small water droplets are formed by capillary breakup of a microscale water jet in air, which is forced out of a fine capillary nozzle, and deposited on a superhydrophobic substrate immersed in tetradecane oil medium. In these conditions the water droplets are very loosely attached to the superhydrophobic substrate and are easily picked up with a hydrophobic AFM cantilever to form a soft colloidal probe. Sample force measurements are conducted to demonstrate the capability of the technique.Sponsors
Research reported in this publication was supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Most of the experiments were conducted in KAUST Microfluidics Thrust Area Labs.Publisher
Elsevier BVae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/j.colsurfa.2014.09.028