We pioneered the use of light to control flows by generating interfacial energy gradients in the presence of photosensitive surfactants. By transposing this principle into various configurations, we build an optofluidic toolbox making possible to control a plethora of microfluidic operations, with a simple light-emitting diode (LED) as a light source, making our approach highly robust, truly portable and cost-effective. We also develop a totally new framework for magnetic transport and manipulation of liquid entities, working with portable, cost-effective permanent magnets and without any added magnetosensitive particles.
