Inside Front Cover: Direct Printing of 3D and Curvilinear Micrometer‐Sized Architectures into Solid Substrates with Sub‐micrometer Resolution (Adv. Mater. 15/2006)

The inside cover shows a hexagonal array of convex microlenses etched directly into glass using a reaction‐diffusion process initiated from a hydrogel stamp. The technique, reported by Grzybowski and co‐workers on p. 2004, allows for direct printing of complex microarchitectures into a variety of materials with sub‐micrometer resolution. The images were generated by longtime exposure of slowly rotating patterns. Cover design by Christopher J. Campbell.     

Investigation of viscosity effect on droplet formation in T-shaped microchannels by numerical and analytical methods

Both numerical and analytical models have been developed to explore the viscosity effect of the continuous phase on drop formation at a T-shaped junction in immiscible liquids. The effects of the generalized power law coefficient, the power law exponent and the yield stress on the mechanism of drop breakup, final drop size and frequency of drop formation are studied by using the numerical three-dimensional volume of fluid model. Droplets coalescence in Bingham fluids is observed in the beginning transient period. The effect of yield stress on drop extension is also discussed. Predictions of drop size by using an analytical force balance show satisfactory agreement with simulation results for Newtonian and power law fluids with different viscosity ratios. The approximation error associated with the analytical model for Bingham fluids is also acceptable. This analytical model can greatly shorten the prediction time as compared with the numerical model, which is helpful for on-line control.     

Using a cross-flow microfluidic chip for monodisperse UV-photopolymerized microparticles

In this paper, we report a microfluidic chip containing a cross-junction channel for the manipulation of UV-photopolymerized microparticles. Hydrodynamic-focusing is used to form a series of using 365 nm UV light to solidify the hydrogel droplets. We were able to control the size of the hydrogel droplets from 75 to 300 μm in diameter by altering the sample and by changing the flow rate ratio of the mineral oil in the center inlet channel to that of the side inlet channels. We found that the size of the emulsions increases with an increase in average velocity of the dispersed phase flow (polymer solution flow). The size of the emulsions decreases with an average velocity increase of the continuous phase flow (mineral oil flow). Experimental data show that the emulsions are very uniform. The developed microfluidic chip has the advantages of ease of fabrication, low cost, and high throughput. The emulsions generated are very uniform and have good regularity.     

Experimental and numerical investigation into the joule heating effect for electrokinetically driven microfluidic chips utilizing total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy

This paper presents a detection scheme for analyzing the temperature distribution nearby the channel wall in a microfluidic chip utilizing a temperature-dependent fluorescence dye. An advanced optical microscope system—total internal reflection fluorescence microscope (TIRFM) is used for measuring the temperature distribution on the channel wall at the point of electroosmotic flow in an electrokinetically driven microfluidic chip. In order to meet the short working distance of the objective type TIRFM scheme, microscope cover glass slits are used to fabricate the microfluidic chips. The short fluorescence excitation depth from a TIRFM system makes the intensity information obtained using TIRFM is not sensitive to the channel depth variation which ususally biases the measured results while using a conventional Epi-fluorescence microscope (EPI-FM). Therefore, a TIRFM can precisely describe the temperature profile of the distance within 100 nm of the channel wall where consists of the Stern layer and the diffusion layer for an electrokinetic microfluidic system. Results indicate the proposed TIRFM provides higher measurement sensitivity over the EPI-FM. Significant temperature gradient along the channel depth is experimentally observed. In addition, the measured wall temperature distributions can be the boundary conditions for numerical investigation into the joule heating effect. The proposed method gives a precise temperature profile of microfluidic channels and shows the substantial impact on developing a numerical simulation model for precisely predicting the joule heating effect in microfluidic chips.     

Numerical simulations of particle migration in a viscoelastic fluid subjected to shear flow

Particle migration is a relevant transport mechanism whenever suspensions flow in channels with gap size comparable to particle dimensions (e.g. microfluidic devices). Several theoretical as well as experimental studies have been performed on this topic, showing that the occurring of this phenomenon and the migration direction are related to particle size, flow rate, and the nature of the suspending liquid.In this work we perform a systematic analysis on the migration of a single particle in a sheared viscoelastic fluid through 2D finite element simulations in a Couette planar geometry. To focus on the effects of viscoelasticity alone, inertia is neglected. The suspending medium is modeled as a Giesekus fluid.An ALE particle mover is combined with a DEVSS/SUPG formulation with a log-representation of the conformation tensor giving stable and convergent results up to high flow rates. To optimize the computational effort and reduce the remeshing and projection steps, needed as soon as the mesh becomes too distorted, a ‘backprojection’ of the flow fields is performed, through which the particle in fact moves along the cross-streamline direction only, and the mesh distortion is hence drastically reduced.Our results, in agreement with recent experimental data, show a migration towards the closest walls, regardless of the fluid and geometrical parameters. The phenomenon is enhanced by the fluid elasticity, the shear thinning and strong confinements. The migration velocity trends show the existence of a master curve governing the particle dynamics in the whole channel. Three different regimes experienced by the particle are recognized, related to the particle-wall distance. The existence of a unique migration behavior and its qualitative aspects do not change by varying the fluid parameters or the particle size.     

Characterization of microdevices for ferrous chloride separation for biosensing applications

Ferrous chloride has a variety of applications such as a reducing flocculation agent in waste-water treatment, especially for wastes containing chromate, in the laboratory synthesis of iron complexes and it is employed as a reducing agent in many organic syntheses. The device used for experiment was fabricated on the silicon wafer as support for two electrodes in a SU8 polymer microchannel with an inlet, for the injection of aqueous solution of ferrous chloride, and two outlets, for the two by-products of separated solutions. The various parameters of the device were measured by White Light Interferometer (WLI) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The magnetic field created by applying different types of potential between two electrodes determined ferrous chloride to separate in ferrous oxide and chlorine (in gaseous form). If a protein is added in this solution we have the possibility to immobilize the protein on the iron particles and on the channel area. The electrical results were collected using a semiconductor system analyzer Keithley and were examined subsequently. The Fe complexes deposited on the electrodes were characterized by XRD analyses.     

Molecular dynamics simulations of oscillatory flows in microfluidic channels

In this paper we apply the direct non-equilibrium molecular dynamics technique to oscillatory flows of fluids in microscopic channels. Initially, we show that the microscopic simulations resemble the macroscopic predictions based on the Navier–Stokes equation very well for large channel width, high density and low temperature. Further simulations for high temperature and low density show that the non-slip boundary condition traditionally used in the macroscopic equation is greatly compromised when the fluid–wall interactions are the same as the fluid–fluid interactions. Simulations of a system with very narrow channel width confirm earlier findings of Poiseuille flow, namely, that the velocity profiles are modulated. We find that these modulations cannot be explained by the local area density model.