Evaporation-induced cavitation in nanofluidic channels
Cavitation, known as the formation of vapor bubbles when liquids are under tension, is of great interest both in condensed matter science as well as in diverse applications such as botany, hydraulic engineering, and medicine. Although widely studied in bulk and microscale-confined liquids, cavitatio...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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National Academy of Sciences
2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74589 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0588-9286 |
| _version_ | 1826212039016579072 |
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| author | Karnik, Rohit Duan, Chuanhua Lu, Ming-Chang Majumdar, Arun |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Karnik, Rohit Duan, Chuanhua Lu, Ming-Chang Majumdar, Arun |
| author_sort | Karnik, Rohit |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Cavitation, known as the formation of vapor bubbles when liquids are under tension, is of great interest both in condensed matter science as well as in diverse applications such as botany, hydraulic engineering, and medicine. Although widely studied in bulk and microscale-confined liquids, cavitation in the nanoscale is generally believed to be energetically unfavorable and has never been experimentally demonstrated. Here we report evaporation-induced cavitation in water-filled hydrophilic nanochannels under enormous negative pressures up to -7 MPa. As opposed to receding menisci observed in microchannel evaporation, the menisci in nanochannels are pinned at the entrance while vapor bubbles form and expand inside. Evaporation in the channels is found to be aided by advective liquid transport, which leads to an evaporation rate that is an order of magnitude higher than that governed by Fickian vapor diffusion in macro- and microscale evaporation. The vapor bubbles also exhibit unusual motion as well as translational stability and symmetry, which occur because of a balance between two competing mass fluxes driven by thermocapillarity and evaporation. Our studies expand our understanding of cavitation and provide new insights for phase-change phenomena at the nanoscale. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:15:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/74589 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:15:11Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | National Academy of Sciences |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/745892022-10-02T01:40:37Z Evaporation-induced cavitation in nanofluidic channels Karnik, Rohit Duan, Chuanhua Lu, Ming-Chang Majumdar, Arun Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Karnik, Rohit Cavitation, known as the formation of vapor bubbles when liquids are under tension, is of great interest both in condensed matter science as well as in diverse applications such as botany, hydraulic engineering, and medicine. Although widely studied in bulk and microscale-confined liquids, cavitation in the nanoscale is generally believed to be energetically unfavorable and has never been experimentally demonstrated. Here we report evaporation-induced cavitation in water-filled hydrophilic nanochannels under enormous negative pressures up to -7 MPa. As opposed to receding menisci observed in microchannel evaporation, the menisci in nanochannels are pinned at the entrance while vapor bubbles form and expand inside. Evaporation in the channels is found to be aided by advective liquid transport, which leads to an evaporation rate that is an order of magnitude higher than that governed by Fickian vapor diffusion in macro- and microscale evaporation. The vapor bubbles also exhibit unusual motion as well as translational stability and symmetry, which occur because of a balance between two competing mass fluxes driven by thermocapillarity and evaporation. Our studies expand our understanding of cavitation and provide new insights for phase-change phenomena at the nanoscale. United States. Dept. of Energy (DE-AC02-05-CH11231) Center for Scalable and Integrated Nanomanufacturing (DMI-0327077) National Science Foundation (U.S.). Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems (NSF EEC- 0425914) 2012-11-07T19:42:15Z 2012-11-07T19:42:15Z 2012-03 2010-09 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0027-8424 1091-6490 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74589 Duan, C. et al. “Evaporation-induced Cavitation in Nanofluidic Channels.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109.10 (2012): 3688–3693. ©2012 by the National Academy of Sciences https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0588-9286 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1014075109 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf National Academy of Sciences PNAS |
| spellingShingle | Karnik, Rohit Duan, Chuanhua Lu, Ming-Chang Majumdar, Arun Evaporation-induced cavitation in nanofluidic channels |
| title | Evaporation-induced cavitation in nanofluidic channels |
| title_full | Evaporation-induced cavitation in nanofluidic channels |
| title_fullStr | Evaporation-induced cavitation in nanofluidic channels |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evaporation-induced cavitation in nanofluidic channels |
| title_short | Evaporation-induced cavitation in nanofluidic channels |
| title_sort | evaporation induced cavitation in nanofluidic channels |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74589 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0588-9286 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT karnikrohit evaporationinducedcavitationinnanofluidicchannels AT duanchuanhua evaporationinducedcavitationinnanofluidicchannels AT lumingchang evaporationinducedcavitationinnanofluidicchannels AT majumdararun evaporationinducedcavitationinnanofluidicchannels |