Mixing in superhydrophobic biomimetic rose petal passive microchannel

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Hiwase, Prajakta, Meenakshi, V.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Hiwase, Prajakta
Meenakshi, V.
author_facet Hiwase, Prajakta
Meenakshi, V.
contents Laminar flow prevails in microfluidic channels, and mixing is limited by the slow diffusive process at the interface between the mixing liquids. Whitesides and co-workers demonstrated a chaotic mixer by patterning the floor of the microchannel with obliquely oriented microridges. This creates an anisotropic resistance to flow, inducing exponential increase in stretching and folding of fluid elements leading to a dramatic increase in mixing. Rose petals that have micro papillae decorated with nanofolds, present a unique biomimetic, superhydrophobic, super adhesive surface. In the present work, a positive and negative replica of the rose petal surface was created using a simple, inexpensive soft lithographic technique and these replicas formed the floor of the microchannel. The floor of the channel naturally presents alternating slip and no slip boundary conditions for the fluid flow that in turn provides anisotropic drag reduction. We find that mixing index obtained for positive replica floor channel is distinctly higher than that of a negative replica floor channel. The variation in mixing index with Peclet number for the replicated channels are explained by characterizing their wetting behavior using contact angle and confocal microscopy. The enhancement in mixing due to the patterning of the floor is quantified by calculating the percentage change in mixing in the replicated channels from the corresponding simple Y channel values. The maximum percentage change is obtained for the positive replica floor channel (77.2 %) and compares well with chaotic mixer having obliquely oriented ridges on the floor (74.7 %).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_10966
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Mixing in superhydrophobic biomimetic rose petal passive microchannel
Hiwase, Prajakta
Meenakshi, V.
Soft Condensed Matter
Applied Physics
Laminar flow prevails in microfluidic channels, and mixing is limited by the slow diffusive process at the interface between the mixing liquids. Whitesides and co-workers demonstrated a chaotic mixer by patterning the floor of the microchannel with obliquely oriented microridges. This creates an anisotropic resistance to flow, inducing exponential increase in stretching and folding of fluid elements leading to a dramatic increase in mixing. Rose petals that have micro papillae decorated with nanofolds, present a unique biomimetic, superhydrophobic, super adhesive surface. In the present work, a positive and negative replica of the rose petal surface was created using a simple, inexpensive soft lithographic technique and these replicas formed the floor of the microchannel. The floor of the channel naturally presents alternating slip and no slip boundary conditions for the fluid flow that in turn provides anisotropic drag reduction. We find that mixing index obtained for positive replica floor channel is distinctly higher than that of a negative replica floor channel. The variation in mixing index with Peclet number for the replicated channels are explained by characterizing their wetting behavior using contact angle and confocal microscopy. The enhancement in mixing due to the patterning of the floor is quantified by calculating the percentage change in mixing in the replicated channels from the corresponding simple Y channel values. The maximum percentage change is obtained for the positive replica floor channel (77.2 %) and compares well with chaotic mixer having obliquely oriented ridges on the floor (74.7 %).
title Mixing in superhydrophobic biomimetic rose petal passive microchannel
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Applied Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.10966