Corona-Driven Microdroplet Coalescence on an Open Oil Film with Intelligent Detection and Tracking

Open-surface coalescence of microdroplets is essential for droplet-based microreactors, emulsion processing, and multiphase microfluidics, yet existing methods often require closed channels or patterned electrodes. Here, we report a corona-driven open-oil-film platform that achieves voltage-regulated coalescence of aqueous microdroplets in a simple needle–plate electrode configuration. Positive corona discharge induces coupled electrohydrodynamic effects—including ion transport, interfacial charge redistribution, and Maxwell stresses—that drive oil-film contraction and charge-regulated droplet bouncing, thereby reducing inter-droplet spacing and promoting successive merging. The coalescence rate and final droplet size are tunable via the applied voltage and oil volume: complete coalescence into a single droplet is achieved at 12 kV, and an optimal oil volume of 60 μL maximizes confinement efficiency. To enable quantitative, frame-by-frame analysis, we develop an improved YOLOv5–OC-SORT framework that yields an overall mAP@0.5 of 0.905 for automatic droplet detection and tracking. As a proof-of-concept, the platform achieves electro-demulsification of a surfactant-stabilized water-in-oil emulsion, increasing the average droplet diameter from ~0.005 mm to ~0.2 mm and enabling effective oil–water separation. This work provides a simple, electrode-pattern-free strategy for controllable droplet coalescence and open-surface emulsion breaking.