Mass transfer and modeling of deformed bubbles in square microchannel

Yang, Shuo; Kong, Gaopan; Cao, Zhenggang; Wu, Zan

doi:10.1016/j.ceja.2023.100518

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 45 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Advances in microfluidics-related technologies have facilitated the widespread use of microfluidic platforms in various fields, including biology, chemistry, and medicine, owing to their numerous advantages (e.g., low sample consumption, rapid mass transport, massive parallelization, automation, and portability). − For robust microfluidic system operation, the microfluidic environment should be carefully controlled to prevent the entrapment of air bubbles within the channel. Bubbles in microchannels result in flow instability, causing device malfunction or poor performance. − For example, it can deteriorate cell viability owing to increased shear stress. Moreover, bubbles can partially or completely block microchannels and induce unequal and unexpected flow patterns, making the utilization of laminar flow characteristics challenging.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanostructured Substrate-Mediated Bubble Degassing in Microfluidic Systems

Lee,

Kim,

Lim

et al. 2024

Langmuir

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Microfluidic platforms have been widely used in a variety of fields owing to their numerous advantages. The prevention and prompt removal of air bubbles from microchannels are important to ensuring the optimal functioning of microfluidic devices. The entrapment of bubbles in the microchannels can result in flow instability and device performance disruption. Active and passive methods are the primary categories of degassing technologies. Active methods rely on external equipment, and passive methods operate autonomously without any external sources. This study proposed a passive degassing method that employs a nanoscale surface morphology integrated into the substrate of a microfluidic device. Nanostructures exhibit a microchannel geometry and are fabricated based on surface micromachining technology using silver ink and chemical etching. Consequently, the gas permeability is enhanced, resulting in effective degassing through the nanostructure. The performance of this degassing method was characterized under varying substrate permeabilities and input pressure conditions, and it was found that increased permeability facilitates the degassing performance. Furthermore, the applicability of our method was demonstrated by using a serpentine channel design prone to gas entrapment, particularly in the corner regions. The nanostructured substrate exhibited significantly improved degassing performance under the given pressure conditions in comparison to the glass substrate.

show abstract