Introduction
The aim of the project is to develop nanofluidic structures for lab-on-a-chip that can manipulate liquid and gas pockets.
In nanofluidic channels, the surface-to-volume ratio is extremely high and the surface tension forces become prominent. Gas bubbles tend to move to regions of large hydrodynamic diameter and therefore gas injection can be made directionally by varying the hydrodynamic diameter of the channel. Bubble valves can also be made in this way. In this project a device will be designed and fabricated that allows electrochemical bubble generation inside the channel. Changes of channel geometry as mentioned above will be used to control the flow of gas bubbles and liquid pockets in the channel. Also other methods like electrokinetics and surface modification can be used for flow control. Finally, the application of such systems will be studied, such as mixing of two droplets that were separated by an air bubble.
Interested?
If you are interested and for instance would like to do your graduation work or practical term, please contact via the email address below.
Contact information
Lingling Shui and or / Jan Eijkel
MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology
University of Twente
P.O. Box 217
7500 AE Enschede
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)53 489 3891 (Lingling) / +31 (0)53 489 2839 (Jan)
Fax: +31 (0)53 489 3595
Email: L.Shui@utwente.nl / J.C.T.Eijkel@el.utwente.nl