What is it about?

This work presents new methods to control the flow of fluids through porous media. In particular this is of significance in paper based microfluidic devices where the residence time of an analyte or a reagent is of key importance in the device.

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Why is it important?

A model incorporating geometry and evaporation effects on capillary penetration is developed. The penetration velocity is sensitive to the geometry and evaporation condition. The boundary of the limited penetration region is predicted theoretically. The inhibition of penetration by evaporation can be offset by varying the geometry.

Perspectives

This work is an important step along the pathway towards highly functional microfluidic systems. it is envisaged that building on this approach, robust and accurate diagnostic paper based systems can and will be developed for a broad range of uses, ranging from biomedicine to food quality assurance. Paper based tests, despite some controversy and significant setbacks in recent years, still have enormous unlocked potential.

Dr, Dorian Hanaor
Technische Universitat Berlin

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This page is a summary of: Tuning capillary penetration in porous media: Combining geometrical and evaporation effects, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, August 2018, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2018.02.101.
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