Mechanism for Asymmetric Nanoscale Electrowetting of an Ionic Liquid on Graphene

Permeation by Electrowetting Actuation: Revealing the Prospect of a Micro-valve Based on Ionic Liquid

The electrowetting behavior of ionic liquid significantly promotes microfluidic technology due to the advantage of manipulation of ionic liquid without additional mechanical parts. Recently, a novel micro-valve that shows good prospects was proposed by MacArthur et al. based on the permeation of ionic liquid under electric field. Inspired by their work, the permeation process of ionic liquid (EMIM-Im) droplets actuated by electrowetting was investigated in this work using molecular dynamics simulation. The wettability of substrate, electric field strength and electric field polarity were varied to investigate their influences. On the substrate side, results showed that the hydrophilic substrates tend to stretch and adsorb the droplet and hence hinder the permeation process, whereas the hydrophobic substrates facilitate permeation due to their low attraction for liquid. Particularly, super hydrophilic substrates should be avoided in practice, because their strong adsorption effects will override the electric field effects and disable the permeation process. On the electric field side, results showed that increased electric field strength enhances the permeation, but varying electric field polarity will result in an asymmetric permeation behavior, which was found to be the result of the different evaporation rate of the ion species that ultimately caused a non-charge-neutral droplet. Our investigation then uncovered the two critical roles of the electric field: elongating the droplet and providing the driving force for the permeation.

Molecular insights into the electrowetting behavior of aqueous ionic liquids

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were applied to investigate the wettability of aqueous hydrophilic and hydrophobic imidazolium-based ionic liquid (IL) nano-droplets on a graphite surface under a perpendicular electric field. Imminent transformation in the droplet configuration was observed at E = 0.08 V Å^-1 both for hydrophobic ILs 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [EMIM][NTF₂] and SPC/E water droplets. However, for the hydrophilic IL, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate [EMIM][BF₄], the droplet was entirely elongated to column-shaped at E = 0.09 V Å^-1 for lower weight percentages of ILs and at E = 0.15 V Å^-1 for a higher weight percentage of ILs (i.e., 50 wt%). We explored the impact of the electric field through various parameters such as mass and charge density distribution across the droplet, contact angle of the droplet, orientation of water dipoles, and hydrogen bond analysis. The external electric field was found to influence the orientation of water dipoles and the accumulation of charge at various interfaces was observed with an increase in an electric field, which finally leads to shape deformation and depletion of ions from the liquid-vapor interface of the droplet. However, this behavior strongly depends on the hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity of the ILs and thus, is critically examined for both the ILs.

Microstructural and Dynamical Heterogeneities in Ionic Liquids

Ionic liquids (ILs) are a special category of molten salts solely composed of ions with varied molecular symmetry and charge delocalization. The versatility in combining varied cation-anion moieties and in functionalizing ions with different atoms and molecular groups contributes to their peculiar interactions ranging from weak isotropic associations to strong, specific, and anisotropic forces. A delicate interplay among intra- and intermolecular interactions facilitates the formation of heterogeneous microstructures and liquid morphologies, which further contributes to their striking dynamical properties. Microstructural and dynamical heterogeneities of ILs lead to their multifaceted properties described by an inherent designer feature, which makes ILs important candidates for novel solvents, electrolytes, and functional materials in academia and industrial applications. Due to a massive number of combinations of ion pairs with ion species having distinct molecular structures and IL mixtures containing varied molecular solvents, a comprehensive understanding of their hierarchical structural and dynamical quantities is of great significance for a rational selection of ILs with appropriate properties and thereafter advancing their macroscopic functionalities in applications. In this review, we comprehensively trace recent advances in understanding delicate interplay of strong and weak interactions that underpin their complex phase behaviors with a particular emphasis on understanding heterogeneous microstructures and dynamics of ILs in bulk liquids, in mixtures with cosolvents, and in interfacial regions.

Molecular Dynamics Simulation on the Electrowetting Behaviors of the Ionic Liquid [BMIM][BF4] on a Solid Substrate

Compared with traditional aqueous solutions, ionic liquids have important application prospects in the field of wetting and electrowetting due to the advantages of high electric conductivity, long liquid range, and low volatility. In this paper, molecular dynamics method was employed to investigate the wetting and electrowetting behaviors of the nanodroplet of ionic liquid on a solid substrate, as well as the distribution of ionic groups. The ionic liquid is 1-butyl-3-methyl tetra-fluoroborate and coarse grained to simplify the molecular simulation model. The results show that the anion and cation groups are distributed in layers above the wall, and the peaks are different corresponding to different ionic groups. Due to the attraction of the solid substrate and the electrostatic force between anions and cations, the contact angle tends to increase slightly with the increase of ionic liquid pairs. To investigate the electrowetting behaviors of ionic liquid droplet, several electric fields of different strengths and directions have been applied to the system, respectively. The results show that the static contact angles decrease obviously with the increase of electric field, and the ionic liquid droplet wets the solid surface asymmetrically under electric fields in positive and negative directions due to different diffusion abilities of cationic and anionic coarse particles. However, for a hydrophilic surface (ε = 2.0 kcal/mol), the ionic liquid droplet wets symmetrically under the electric field E = ±0.18 V/Å because of the strong interaction from the solid surface. Thus, the wetting and electrowetting behaviors are determined by the combine effect of electric field, interaction among cationic/anionic coarse particles, and solid substrates.

Interfacial Nanostructure and Asymmetric Electrowetting of Ionic Liquids

In this work, the interfacial nanostructure and electrowetting of ionic liquids having the same 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium cation ([EMIm]⁺) but different anions such as bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (TFSI^-), trifluoromethylsulfonate (TfO^-), methylsulfonate (OMs^-), acetate (OAc^-), bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (FSI^-), dicyanamide (DCA^-), and tris(pentafluorethyl)trifluorphosphat (FAP^-) on bare metallic electrodes were investigated. In the investigated voltammetric potential regime, the contact angle versus voltage curve is asymmetric with respect to surface polarity. The electrowetting of the ILs occurs at negative potentials but does not occur at positive potentials. In situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) shows that the IL adopts a multilayered structure at the solid/IL interface, and a cation-rich layer is present in the innermost layer during cathodic polarization. The cations can change their orientation and propagate ahead of the three-phase contact line by diffusion, leading to further spreading on the negatively charged surface. The formation of such a surface layer is also evidenced by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Such a surface diffusion mechanism does not occur during anodic polarization, where anions are enriched. In addition, the influence of substrate, water, and dissolved zinc salts on the electrowetting of ILs was studied. Our findings provide valuable insights for the interfacial nanostructure and the electrowetting of ILs.

Field induced anomalous spreading, oscillation, ejection, spinning, and breaking of oil droplets on a strongly slipping water surface

Application of an electric field on an oil droplet floating on the surface of a deionized water bath showed interesting motions such as spreading, oscillation, and ejection. The electric field was generated by connecting a pointed platinum cathode at the top of the oil droplet and a copper anode coated with polymer at the bottom of the water layer. The experimental setup mimicked a conventional electrowetting setup with the exception that the oil was spread on a soft and deformable water isolator. While at relatively lower field intensities we observed spreading of the droplet, at intermediate field intensities the droplet oscillated around the platinum cathode, before ejecting out at a speed as high as ∼5 body lengths per second at even stronger field intensities. The experiments suggested that when the electric field was ramped up abruptly to a particular voltage, any of the spreading, oscillation, or ejection motions of the droplet could be engendered at lower, intermediate and higher field intensities, respectively. However, when the field was ramped up progressively by increasing by a definite amount of voltage per unit time, all three aforementioned motions could be generated simultaneously with the increase in the field intensity. Interestingly, when the aforementioned setup was placed on a magnet, the droplet showed a rotational motion under the influence of the Lorentz force, which was generated because of the coupling of the weak leakage current with the externally applied magnetic field. The spreading, oscillation, ejection, and rotation of the droplet were found to be functions of the oil-water interfacial tension, viscosity, and size of the oil droplet. We developed simple theoretical models to explain the experimental results obtained. Importantly, rotating at a higher speed broke the droplet into a number of smaller ones, owing to the combined influence of the spreading due to the centripetal force and the shear at the oil-water interface. While the oscillatory and rotational motions of the incompressible droplet could be employed as stirrers or impellers inside microfluidic devices for mixing applications, the droplet ejection could be employed for futuristic applications such as payload transport or drug delivery.

A comparative study of room temperature ionic liquids and their organic solvent mixtures near charged electrodes

The structural properties of electrolytes consisting of solutions of ionic liquids in a polar solvent at charged electrode surfaces are investigated using classical atomistic simulations. The studied electrolytes consisted of tetraethylammonium tetrafluoroborate (NEt4-BF4), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (c2mim-BF4) and 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (c8mim-BF4) salts dissolved in acetonitrile solvent. We discuss the influence of electrolyte concentration, chemical structure of the ionic salt, temperature, conducting versus semiconducting nature of the electrode, electrode geometry and surface roughness on the electric double layer structure and capacitance and compare these properties with those obtained for pure room temperature ionic liquids. We show that electrolytes consisting of solutions of ions can behave quite differently from pure ionic liquid electrolytes.