Fundamental investigation on electrostatic traveling-wave transport of liquid drop

A basic research has been being carried out on transport of a liquid drop in electrostatic traveling field. A liquid drop conveyer consisting of parallel electrodes was constructed and fourphase traveling electrostatic wave was applied to the electrodes to transport the liquid drop on the conveyer. The following were clarified by the experiment: (1) Electrostatic transport of the liquid drop was demonstrated in insulative insoluble liquid. (2) The drop was charged on the conveyer by the friction and driven by the Coulomb force. The polarization force was also applied to the ralatively large drop. (3) The liquid drop that covered less than three arrays of the electrode could be transported in the traveling wave field. (4) The mode of liquid transport was classified into two; synchronous region that liquid drop motion was synchronized with the weve and delayed region.