Mixing in Colliding, Ultrasonically Levitated Drops

Lab-in-a-drop, using ultrasonic levitation, has been actively investigated for the last two decades. Benefits include lack of contact between solutions and an apparatus and a lack of sample cross-contamination. Understanding and controlling mixing in the levitated drop is necessary for using an acoustically levitated drop as a microreactor, particularly for studying kinetics. A pulsed electrostatic delivery system enables addition and mixing of a desired-volume droplet with the levitated drop. Measurement of mixing kinetics is obtained by high-speed video monitoring of a titration reaction. Drop heterogeneity is visualized as 370 nl of 0.25 M KOH (pH: 13.4) was added to 3.7 μL of 0.058 M HCl (pH: 1.24). Spontaneous mixing time is about 2 s. Following droplet impact, the mixed drop orbits the levitator axis at about 5 Hz during homogenization. The video’s green channel (maximum response near 540 nm) shows the color change due to phenolphthalein absorption. While mixing is at least an order of magnitude faster in the levitated drop compared with three-dimensional diffusion, modulation of the acoustic waveform near the surface acoustic wave resonance frequency of the levitated drop does not substantially reduce mixing time.