An open microfluidic design for contact angle measurement
Spontaneous capillary flow in open microchannels is a phenomenon driven by surface energies. The contact angle that the liquid forms with the channel's substrate material and the cross-section of the microchannel decide whether liquid from a connected reservoir will automatically fill the chann...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Micro and Nano Engineering |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590007223000278 |
| _version_ | 1797798679951704064 |
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| author | T. Mitteramskogler A. Fuchsluger R. Ecker K. Harsanyi A. Tröls T. Wilfinger B. Jakoby |
| author_facet | T. Mitteramskogler A. Fuchsluger R. Ecker K. Harsanyi A. Tröls T. Wilfinger B. Jakoby |
| author_sort | T. Mitteramskogler |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Spontaneous capillary flow in open microchannels is a phenomenon driven by surface energies. The contact angle that the liquid forms with the channel's substrate material and the cross-section of the microchannel decide whether liquid from a connected reservoir will automatically fill the channel or not. In this work we show how this behavior can be used to design a passive contact angle measurement device (CAMD) based on parabolic open microgrooves. To that end, we present a theory of open capillary flow in such microgrooves and compare the results to minimal energy surface simulations. Additionally, we discuss that the condition for capillary flow of curved microchannels is essentially equal to the condition for their straight counterparts having the same cross-section.Lastly, we present two demonstrators of our CAMD made out of micromilled poly(methyl methacrylate). The devices consist of five open microchannels with different cross-sections which are connected to a common liquid reservoir. We show how the behavior of a liquid placed into that reservoir can be used to evaluate the contact angle between the liquid and the substrate material. A comparison to conventional contact angle goniometry shows that our approach is able to successfully estimate contact angles with an accuracy of 10° by design which can be improved by employing a greater number of microchannels. Since our devices were automatically designed and can be tuned to specific applications, this provides an easy approach to include contact angle measurement into existing lab-on-a-chip devices. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T04:08:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-926dc05330014b92a02837f608ee042a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2590-0072 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T04:08:31Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Micro and Nano Engineering |
| spelling | doaj.art-926dc05330014b92a02837f608ee042a2023-06-21T06:58:55ZengElsevierMicro and Nano Engineering2590-00722023-06-0119100197An open microfluidic design for contact angle measurementT. Mitteramskogler0A. Fuchsluger1R. Ecker2K. Harsanyi3A. Tröls4T. Wilfinger5B. Jakoby6Institute for Microelectronics and Microsensors, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenbergerstraße 69, 4040 Linz, Austria; Corresponding author.Institute for Microelectronics and Microsensors, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenbergerstraße 69, 4040 Linz, AustriaInstitute for Microelectronics and Microsensors, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenbergerstraße 69, 4040 Linz, AustriaInstitute for Microelectronics and Microsensors, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenbergerstraße 69, 4040 Linz, AustriaInstitute for Microelectronics and Microsensors, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenbergerstraße 69, 4040 Linz, AustriaErnst Wittner GmbH, Missindorfstraße 21, 1140 Vienna, AustriaInstitute for Microelectronics and Microsensors, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenbergerstraße 69, 4040 Linz, AustriaSpontaneous capillary flow in open microchannels is a phenomenon driven by surface energies. The contact angle that the liquid forms with the channel's substrate material and the cross-section of the microchannel decide whether liquid from a connected reservoir will automatically fill the channel or not. In this work we show how this behavior can be used to design a passive contact angle measurement device (CAMD) based on parabolic open microgrooves. To that end, we present a theory of open capillary flow in such microgrooves and compare the results to minimal energy surface simulations. Additionally, we discuss that the condition for capillary flow of curved microchannels is essentially equal to the condition for their straight counterparts having the same cross-section.Lastly, we present two demonstrators of our CAMD made out of micromilled poly(methyl methacrylate). The devices consist of five open microchannels with different cross-sections which are connected to a common liquid reservoir. We show how the behavior of a liquid placed into that reservoir can be used to evaluate the contact angle between the liquid and the substrate material. A comparison to conventional contact angle goniometry shows that our approach is able to successfully estimate contact angles with an accuracy of 10° by design which can be improved by employing a greater number of microchannels. Since our devices were automatically designed and can be tuned to specific applications, this provides an easy approach to include contact angle measurement into existing lab-on-a-chip devices.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590007223000278Contact angle measurementSpontaneous capillary flowOpen microgroovesCurved microchannels |
| spellingShingle | T. Mitteramskogler A. Fuchsluger R. Ecker K. Harsanyi A. Tröls T. Wilfinger B. Jakoby An open microfluidic design for contact angle measurement Micro and Nano Engineering Contact angle measurement Spontaneous capillary flow Open microgrooves Curved microchannels |
| title | An open microfluidic design for contact angle measurement |
| title_full | An open microfluidic design for contact angle measurement |
| title_fullStr | An open microfluidic design for contact angle measurement |
| title_full_unstemmed | An open microfluidic design for contact angle measurement |
| title_short | An open microfluidic design for contact angle measurement |
| title_sort | open microfluidic design for contact angle measurement |
| topic | Contact angle measurement Spontaneous capillary flow Open microgrooves Curved microchannels |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590007223000278 |
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