How boundaries shape chemical delivery in microfluidics
Abstract
In microfluidics systems, the small size of the channels ensures that the flow profiles are laminar, so solute mixing is largely governed by diffusion in the absence of active mixing. Aminian et al. revisited the classic phenomenon of Taylor diffusion to investigate the effects that the aspect ratio of the conduit has on the longtime axial distribution of solutes. They show both numerically and experimentally that the aspect ratio controls the skewness of this distribution, and thus pipe design alone is enough to control mixing profiles.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Dec 09, 2016
- Source ID
- 10.1126/science.aag0532
Entities
People
- Daniel M. Harris
- Francesca Bernardi
- Manuchehr Aminian
- Richard M McLaughlin
- Roberto Camassa
Organizations
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Naval Research
- University of North Carolina