Droplet motion has been a long-standing interest in microfluidics as it is often limited by the high operating voltages, which hampers the development of consumer applications. Forces generated by liquid dielectrophoresis (L-DEP) can enhance surface wetting, without requiring chemical modification or surface texturing. This work presents a droplet actuating platform to control the wetting behaviour of water droplets using L-DEP. The exploitation of high electric fields at the droplet solid–liquid interface reduced the operating voltages. The operating voltage can be further reduced, to as low as 30 V, by introducing a lubricant layer to minimise the droplet contact angle hysteresis, thus requiring a smaller L-DEP bulk force. The outcomes of this study will provide a new pathway for developing energy-efficient and reliable droplet actuating platforms to clean a variety of surfaces. A particular interest will be the application of this system in the automobile sector, for instance, to clean headlamps, sensors, cameras, door mirrors, front side glass, and rear screen.

液滴运动一直是微流体的长期兴趣，因为它通常受到高工作电压的限制，这阻碍了消费应用的发展。液体介电泳 (L-DEP) 产生的力可以增强表面润湿性，无需化学改性或表面纹理化。这项工作提出了一个液滴驱动平台，以使用 L-DEP 控制水滴的润湿行为。在液滴固液界面处利用高电场降低了工作电压。通过引入润滑剂层以最小化液滴接触角滞后，工作电压可以进一步降低至 30 V，从而需要更小的 L-DEP 体积力。这项研究的结果将为开发节能且可靠的液滴驱动平台以清洁各种表面提供新途径。一个特别令人感兴趣的是该系统在汽车领域的应用，例如，清洁前照灯、传感器、摄像头、车门后视镜、前侧玻璃和后屏幕。