Polymer filaments from bouncing drop*

Polymer filaments and their production are of primary importance in biology, tissue engineering, medicine, and pharmacology. Herein we use high-speed video imaging to study the impact and bouncing of a polymer drop to generate such filaments. Different filament structures can be pulled from the drop during the bouncing, depending on the varying super-hydrophobic surfaces.  The liquid drops comprise distilled water and a small amount of high molecular weight (4 MDa) polymer - poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) ¹.  We also present a novel method of depositing fine polymer and DNA filaments on super-hydrophobic pillared surfaces, differing from previous methods using an evaporating drop ^2–6.  Different impact velocities and substrate inclination angles are investigated to optimize the thickness and length of the filaments.

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