Estimation of inhomogeneous zeta potential using velocity measurements of EOF

We have developed a method of estimating the zeta potential distribution along the microchannel wall using velocity measurements of the EOF. The relevant inverse problem is solved through the minimization of a performance function utilizing the conjugate gradient method. Employing a set of simulated velocity measurements, which is constructed by adding random noise to the computed exact velocity, the present method is found to estimate the distribution of the zeta potential along the channel wall with reasonable accuracy.     

Laser induced fluorescence photobleaching anemometer for microfluidic devices

We have developed a novel, non-intrusive fluid velocity measurement method based on photobleaching of a fluorescent dye for microfluidic devices. The residence time of the fluorescent dye in a laser beam depends on the flow velocity and approximately corresponds to the decaying time of the photobleaching of the dye in the laser beam. The residence time is inversely proportional to the flow velocity. The fluorescence intensity increases with the flow velocity due to the decrease of the residence time. A calibration curve between fluorescence intensity and known flow velocity should be obtained first. The calibration relationship is then used to calculate the flow velocity directly from the measured fluorescence intensity signal. The new method can measure the velocity very quickly and is easy to use. It is demonstrated for both pressure driven flow and electroosmotic flow.     

Precision velocity measurements of pulsed supersonic jets

We introduce a straightforward experimental approach for determining the mean flow velocity of a supersonic jet with very high precision. While time measurements easily can achieve accuracies of Δt/t ≤ 10(-4), typically the absolute flight distances are much less well-defined. This causes significantly increased errors in calculations of the mean flow velocity and mean kinetic energy. The basic concept to improve on this situation is changing the flight distance in vacuo by precisely defined increments employing a linear translation stage. We demonstrate the performance of this method with a flight path that can be varied by approximately 15% with a tolerance of setting of 50 μm. In doing so, an unprecedented accurate value for the mean flow velocity of Δv/ < 3 × 10(-4) has been obtained without prior knowledge of the total distance. This very high precision in source pressure, temperature, and particle speed facilitates an improved energetic analysis of condensation processes in supersonic jet expansions. The technique is also of broad interest to other fields employing the strong adiabatic cooling of supersonic beams, in particular, molecular spectroscopy. In the presented case study, a thorough analysis of arrival time spectra of neutral helium implies cluster formation even at elevated temperatures.     

A gentler approach to RNEMD: nonisotropic velocity scaling for computing thermal conductivity and shear viscosity

We present a new method for introducing stable nonequilibrium velocity and temperature gradients in molecular dynamics simulations of heterogeneous systems. This method extends earlier reverse nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (RNEMD) methods which use momentum exchange swapping moves. The standard swapping moves can create nonthermal velocity distributions and are difficult to use for interfacial calculations. By using nonisotropic velocity scaling (NIVS) on the molecules in specific regions of a system, it is possible to impose momentum or thermal flux between regions of a simulation while conserving the linear momentum and total energy of the system. To test the method, we have computed the thermal conductivity of model liquid and solid systems as well as the interfacial thermal conductivity of a metal-water interface. We find that the NIVS-RNEMD improves the problematic velocity distributions that develop in other RNEMD methods.     

一种直接测定微流控芯片电渗流速度的新方法

随着微芯片技术的成熟,越来越迫切地需要有一个准确而简洁的电渗流速度的检测方法。根据荧光物质罗丹明123（Rh123）在不同pH缓冲溶液中迁移时间的变化,推导出Rh123在pH 9和10条件下分别有中性分子存在,而中性分子的移动速度等于电渗流速度,因此建立了直接以Rh123中性分子为标记物测定电渗流速度的方法。通过直接检测Rh123中性分子的迁移时间,计算得出所用玻璃微流控芯片在pH 9.3和pH 10.1的电渗流速度为3.9×10-4 cm2/(s·V)和4.1×10-4 cm2/(s·V),与经典方法对照无明显差异。     

Experimental Van Deemter plots of shear-driven liquid chromatographic separations in disposable microchannels

We present a new stationary phase coating method, yielding a monolayer of densely arrayed porous HPLC beads (d(p)=4 microm) for use in a disposable shear-driven flow LC system. The system is inherently suited for whole-column detection through the small voids between the individual particles of the layer. The chromatographic performance of the system has been characterized by performing a series of coumarin dye separation experiments (reversed-phase mode) and by measuring the theoretical plate height as a function of the mobile phase velocity. The resulting Van Deemter curve, yielding a value of about 90,000 plates/m near the u=u(opt) velocity, shows good agreement with the theoretical expectations, and hence constitutes the first full validation of the theory of shear-driven chromatography.     

Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy for flow rate imaging and monitoring--optimization, limitations and artifacts

We recently demonstrated a new method for mapping fluid velocities in 3 dimensions and with exceptionally high spatial resolution for the characterization of flow in microfluidic devices. In the method, a colloidal suspension containing fluorescent tracer particles, dye doped polymer spheres, is pumped through a microchannel and confocal microscopy combined with fluorescence correlation spectroscopy is used to measure fluid velocities. In this report, we further characterize the technique and report on optimizations that allow a 5-fold increase in speed of single point velocity measurements. This increase in measurement speed will yield a 25 fold reduction in the time needed to collect a complete velocity image. The precision of measured velocities was characterized as a function of tracer particle concentration, measurement time, and fluid velocity. In addition, we confirm the linearity of the measurement method (velocity vs. applied pressure) over a range of velocities spanning four orders of magnitude. Furthermore, we demonstrate that an artifact in velocity measurements using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) that was interpreted by others as being caused by optical trapping forces is actually an artifact caused by detector saturation and can be avoided by careful choice of experimental conditions.     

Photobleaching-based flow measurement in a commercial capillary electrophoresis chip instrument

For microfluidic analytical instruments, a facile, fast, and accurate instrument test is highly demanded. The test includes the quantitative verification of the relationship between pressure drop and flow velocity for the hydrodynamic pump, between the electric voltage and electroosmotic flow (EOF) for the high-voltage supply, and the chip quality. The key point for the test is the measurement of the flow velocity. However, most currently available velocimetries cannot be directly used without any instrumental modification or adding extra instruments. We applied a recently developed Laser Induced Fluorescence Photobleaching Anemometer (LIFPA) for the instrument test through measuring fluid flow velocity in a microfluidic instrument with optical measurement without any modification and extra instrument. We have successfully used the method to test Caliper HTS 250 System from Caliper Life Sciences (Hopkinton, MA) with its own light source and detector. The experimental result demonstrates that this single-point method of measuring flow velocity can be easily used for accurate test of a microfluidic instrument in less than 10 min at extremely low cost without any modification and extra instrument.     

A new action photoelectron spectroscopy for anions

We present a new experimental approach, in which anion photodetachment spectroscopy is recorded with electrons of fixed kinetic energy. This approach circumvents some shortcomings of the zero electron kinetic energy method. Our method is based on a modified magnetic bottle photoelectron spectrometer (MBPES). A tunable laser is used to detach electrons from mass selected anions, drifting collinearly with the 40 cm MBPES drift tube. To avoid Doppler broadening, a low voltage pulse removes the velocity component of anions from the detached electrons. Spectra are recorded by collecting the wavelength dependence of electron-signal at a predetermined TOF window, corresponding to a specific electron-kinetic energy. We call this approach PEACE, denoting photoelectron action spectroscopy at constant kinetic energy. Our best resolution is 0.65 meV for 1.5 meV electrons. We present a PEACE spectrum of HgCl(-) together with the corresponding simulated theoretical spectrum. The method is similar in resolution and data collection rates to the slow electron velocity map imaging technique recently introduced by Neumark and co-workers.     

Properties of matrix-assisted laser desorption. Measurements with a time-to-digital converter.

Some properties of matrix-assisted laser desorption have been studied using single-ion-counting methods and a time-to-digital converter. The methods allow examination of the process for irradiances near the reported threshold for observation with a transient recorder. All measurements were made using bovine insulin as a test compound. We present direct evidence that an irradiance threshold near 10(6) W cm-2 exists for ion production, and that the process is a collective effect, either involving a large number of molecular ions (approximately 10(4) in a successful event or none at all. Above the threshold, the yield is found to scale with a high power (4th to 6th) of the irradiance. Measurements of initial velocity distributions indicate an axial velocity spread corresponding to approximately 50 eV and a radial velocity spread corresponding to approximately 2.4 eV. Thus the ejection or extraction mechanism appears to be strongly asymmetric.     

Sur une méthode de projection vectorielle pour la résolution des équations de Navier-Stokes

We propose a method of solving the Navier-Stokes equations in incompressible flow. It is based on the projection of the velocity field, approached by a prediction step on a zero divergence field. The novelty of this method concerns how the projection is made, directly operating on all the components of the velocity field through a coupling. A highly implicit algorithm allows us to maintain all physical boundary conditions of the problem during the solution steps.     

Slip flow in graphene nanochannels

We investigate the hydrodynamic boundary condition for simple nanofluidic systems such as argon and methane flowing in graphene nanochannels using equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations (EMD) in conjunction with our recently proposed method [J. S. Hansen, B. D. Todd, and P. J. Daivis, Phys. Rev. E 84, 016313 (2011)]. We first calculate the fluid-graphene interfacial friction coefficient, from which we can predict the slip length and the average velocity of the first fluid layer close to the wall (referred to as the slip velocity). Using direct nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations (NEMD) we then calculate the slip length and slip velocity from the streaming velocity profiles in Poiseuille and Couette flows. The slip lengths and slip velocities from the NEMD simulations are found to be in excellent agreement with our EMD predictions. Our EMD method therefore enables one to directly calculate this intrinsic friction coefficient between fluid and solid and the slip length for a given fluid and solid, which is otherwise tedious to calculate using direct NEMD simulations at low pressure gradients or shear rates. The advantages of the EMD method over the NEMD method to calculate the slip lengths/flow rates for nanofluidic systems are discussed, and we finally examine the dynamic behaviour of slip due to an externally applied field and shear rate.     

Three-dimensional measurement and visualization of internal flow of a moving droplet using confocal micro-PIV

This paper presents a micro-flow diagnostic technique, 'high-speed confocal micro-particle image velocimetry (PIV)', and its application to the internal flow measurement of a droplet passing through a microchannel. A confocal micro-PIV system has been successfully constructed wherein a high-speed confocal scanner is combined with the conventional micro-PIV technique. The confocal micro-PIV system enables us to obtain a sequence of sharp and high-contrast cross-sectional particle images at 2000 frames s(-1). This study investigates the confocal depth, which is a significant parameter to determine the out-of-plane measurement resolution in confocal micro-PIV. Using the present confocal micro-PIV system, we can measure velocity distributions of micro-flows in a 228 microm x 171 microm region with a confocal depth of 1.88 microm. We also propose a three-dimensional velocity measurement method based on the confocal micro-PIV and the equation of continuity. This method enables us to measure three velocity components in a three-dimensional domain of micro flows. The confocal micro-PIV system is applied to the internal flow measurement of a droplet. We have measured three-dimensional distributions of three-component velocities of a droplet traveling in a 100 microm (width) x 58 microm (depth) channel. A volumetric velocity distribution inside a droplet is obtained by the confocal micro-PIV and the three-dimensional flow structure inside the droplet is investigated. The measurement results suggest that a three-dimensional and complex circulating flow is formed inside the droplet.     

Predicting hydrate stability zones of petroleum fluids using sound velocity data of salt aqueous solutions

Predicting hydrate stability zones of petroleum fluids from the aqueous phase properties can have a practical application as measuring these properties is normally easier than hydrate phase equilibrium measurement and can reduce experimental costs and efforts. In this work, the possibility of estimating hydrate stability zone from sound velocity data of salt aqueous solutions is investigated using a feed-forward artificial neural network method with a modified Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm. The method considers the changes of sound velocity in salt (NaCl, KCl, NaBr, KBr, BaCl₂, MgCl₂, Na₂SO₄, HCOONa) aqueous solution with respect to sound velocity in pure water and therefore there is no need to have a quantitative analysis of the aqueous solution. Independent data (not used in training and developing of the method) are used to examine the reliability of this tool. The predictions of this method are in acceptable agreement with independent experimental data, demonstrating the reliability of this tool for estimating the hydrate stability zone in the presence of salt aqueous solutions.     

A finite element formulation of frequency-dependent electro-osmosis

In this paper, we model frequency-dependent electro-osmosis in a capillary using the fully nonlinear Navier-Stokes equation (NSE) for viscous, incompressible, and homogeneous flow. We simulate the NSE using the finite element method, computing the solution for a closed capillary and compare it to the closed form solutions. It is confirmed that the second velocity zero crossing is dependent of the capillary radius. The distance of the zero velocity crossing decreases with decreasing capillary radius. It is also shown that the AC electro-osmosis causes a circulation of fluid within the capillary with low frequencies generating the greatest net flow.     

Ligand Crosslinking Boosts Thermal Transport in Colloidal Nanocrystal Solids

The ongoing interest in colloidal nanocrystal solids for electronic and photonic devices necessitates that their thermal‐transport properties be well understood because heat dissipation frequently limits performance in these devices. Unfortunately, colloidal nanocrystal solids generally possess very low thermal conductivities. This very low thermal conductivity primarily results from the weak van der Waals interaction between the ligands of adjacent nanocrystals. We overcome this thermal‐transport bottleneck by crosslinking the ligands to exchange a weak van der Waals interaction with a strong covalent bond. We obtain thermal conductivities of up to 1.7 Wm^?1 K^?1 that exceed prior reported values by a factor of 4. This improvement is significant because the entire range of prior reported values themselves only span a factor of 4 (i.e., 0.1–0.4 Wm^?1 K^?1). We complement our thermal‐conductivity measurements with mechanical nanoindentation measurements that demonstrate ligand crosslinking increases Young's modulus and sound velocity. This increase in sound velocity is a key bridge between mechanical and thermal properties because sound velocity and thermal conductivity are linearly proportional according to kinetic theory. Control experiments with non‐crosslinkable ligands, as well as transport modeling, further confirm that ligand crosslinking boosts thermal transport.     

Velocity-independent microfluidic flow cytometry

Pressure-driven flow in microfluidic channels is characterized by a distribution of velocities. This distribution makes it difficult to implement conventional flow cytometry data analysis. We have demonstrated a method to measure velocity as an independent parameter when performing microfluidic flow cytometry. This method allows velocity-independent analysis of particles such as beads or cells, and allows flow cytometry analysis of extended objects, such as long DNA molecules. It allows accurate flow cytometry in transient and nonuniform flows. This general measurement method could be used in the future to measure the velocity of particles in a variety of existing microfluidic devices without the need for changes in their design.     

Combining molecular dynamics with Lattice Boltzmann: a hybrid method for the simulation of (charged) colloidal systems

We present a hybrid method for the simulation of colloidal systems that combines molecular dynamics (MD) with the Lattice Boltzmann (LB) scheme. The LB method is used as a model for the solvent in order to take into account the hydrodynamic mass and momentum transport through the solvent. The colloidal particles are propagated via MD and they are coupled to the LB fluid by viscous forces. With respect to the LB fluid, the colloids are represented by uniformly distributed points on a sphere. Each such point [with a velocity V(r) at any off-lattice position r] is interacting with the neighboring eight LB nodes by a frictional force F = xi0(V(r)-u(r)), with xi0 being a friction coefficient and u(r) being the velocity of the fluid at the position r. Thermal fluctuations are introduced in the framework of fluctuating hydrodynamics. This coupling scheme has been proposed recently for polymer systems by Ahlrichs and Dunweg [J. Chem. Phys. 111, 8225 (1999)]. We investigate several properties of a single colloidal particle in a LB fluid, namely, the effective Stokes friction and long-time tails in the autocorrelation functions for the translational and rotational velocity. Moreover, a charged colloidal system is considered consisting of a macroion, counterions, and coions that are coupled to a LB fluid. We study the behavior of the ions in a constant electric field. In particular, an estimate of the effective charge of the macroion is yielded from the number of counterions that move with the macroion in the direction of the electric field.     

Simultaneous estimation of zeta potential and slip coefficient in hydrophobic microchannels

Electroosmotic flows through hydrophobic microchannels experience velocity slip at the channel wall, which increases the volumetric flow rate at a given electric potential gradient. The conventional method of zeta potential estimation using the volumetric flow rate may yield quite inaccurate zeta potential unless the velocity slip is appropriately taken care of. In the present investigation we develop a method for simultaneous estimation of zeta potential and velocity slip coefficient in the electroosmotic flow through a hydrophobic microchannel using velocity measurements. The relevant inverse problem is solved through the minimization of a performance function utilizing a conjugate gradient method. The present method is found to estimate the zeta potential and slip coefficient accurately even with noisy velocity measurements.