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Liquid behavior within micro-channels and on surfaces Bruce M. Law, Kansas State University, DMR 0603144.
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Liquid behavior within micro-channels and on surfacesBruce M. Law, Kansas State University, DMR 0603144 Microfluidics uses micron-sized channels to create a chemical factory on a “chip”, the size of a credit card. Liquids are propelled along these channels and where two channels meet, a chemical reaction can occur. Understanding how liquid behavior is governed by the channel topography (eg. rectangular versus triangular channels) and liquid wettability (i.e. the contact angle the liquid makes with the channel), can be used to control the liquid behavior. The image shows one region of the morphological diagram where liquid polystyrene filaments can coexist with liquid droplets within a triangular channel (Eur. Phys. J Special Top. 166, 151 (2009)). Coexisting polystyrene filaments and droplets in triangular channels
Liquid behavior within micro-channels and on surfacesBruce M. Law, Kansas State University, DMR 0603144 Undergraduates Erik Stalcup and Frank Male have travelled to Goettingen, Germany on a number of occasions to collaborate with scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-organization. Frank is simulating the break-up of liquid filaments into droplets in triangular channels. Erik is studying the spreading of ionic liquid droplets on surfaces. Ionic liquids are composed totally of ions at room temperature. In this work (J. Coll. Interf. Sci., to be published), Erik is studying whether the spreading of ionic liquid droplets is determined by friction at the droplet contact line or by friction within the liquid droplet. Spreading behavior of an ionic liquid droplet.