Nanostructured surfaces for dramatic reduction of flow resistance in droplet-based microfluidics

This paper reports a dramatic reduction of liquid droplet flow resistance by engineering the surfaces into nanomechanical hydrophobic structures that show a contact angle over 175/spl deg/. Flow resistances of droplets on open surfaces as well as in confined microchannels (between surfaces) have been measured with significant reduction of flow resistance (over 99% and over 95%, respectively) compared with a surface of the same material.