• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.217-223
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• 2016

In this paper, the movement of a liquid metal droplet in a channel by continuous electrowetting effect is analyzed. The channel is fabricated using two glass substrates and silicone rubber as spacers, and a mercury droplet and dilute sulfuric acid are added into the channel. The droplet is moved according to voltage applied at both ends of the channel through an electrolyte. According to the shape of the droplet and the applied voltage, the velocity of the droplet is changed. The velocity is proportional to the applied voltage and inversely proportional to the length of the droplet, both theoretically and experimentally. Contact angle hysteresis and a meniscus change were also found in the moving state. This implies the existence of a threshold in movement by Laplace pressure difference. The experiment indicated that the sliding angle was inversely proportional to the width of the droplet but that the voltage threshold was proportional to the width.