Abstract
In the emerging field of deformable microfluidics, we propose a new geometry in which the height and angle of a channel are controlled, thanks to the deformability of the microfluidic elastomer down to thicknesses of a few microns. The particularity of our set-up is that the height of the channel under study is fully closed at rest, which reveals especially well suited to address micro-nanoconfinement problems such as clogging, transport selectivity and flow rectification. Using fluorescence microscopy and light absorption, we probe the channel shape from the measurement of the PDMS-displacement field. We demonstrate that the maximal PDMS displacement can be inferred from finite elements numerical simulations and predicted reliably with simple analytical relations from elasticity continuum mechanics.
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Acknowledgements
We sincerely thank Jean-Claude Vial, Aurelien Gourrier and Irene Wang for their time and help obtaining successful quantitative optical measurements. We also appreciate Saranath Seshadri’s support on Comsol utilization and Daniele Centanni for microfluidic preparation. We acknowledge Elisabeth Charlaix and Benjamin Cross for stimulating discussions and TOTAL SA for funding.
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Velasco Anez, D., Hadji, C., Santanach-Carreras, E. et al. Microfluidic channels of adjustable height using deformable elastomer. Microfluid Nanofluid 25, 7 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-020-02408-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-020-02408-5