Capillarity-driven flows at the continuum limit

Olivier O. Vincent (1) , Alexandre Szenicer (1) , Abraham D. Stroock (1)

1 Cornell University [New York]

We experimentally investigate the dynamics of capillary-driven flows at the nanoscale, using an original platform that combines nanoscale pores (3 nm in diameter) and microfluidic features. In particular, we show that drying involves a fine coupling between thermodynamics and fluid mechanics that can be used to generate precisely controlled nanoflows driven by extreme stresses-up to 100 MPa of tension. We exploit these tunable flows to provide quantitative tests of continuum theories (e.g. Kelvin-Laplace equation and Poiseuille flow) across an unprecedented range and we isolate the breakdown of continuum as a negative slip length of molecular dimension. Our results show a coherent picture across multiple experiments including drying-induced permeation flows, imbibition and poroelastic transients.

Domaines: Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]; Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

Olivier O. Vincent, Alexandre Szenicer, Abraham D. Stroock. Capillarity-driven flows at the continuum limit. Soft Matter, 2016, 12 (31), pp.6656-6661. ⟨10.1039/C6SM00733C⟩. ⟨hal-02568893⟩