Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 1 January 1999:
Vol. 283. no. 5398, pp. 46 - 49
DOI: 10.1126/science.283.5398.46
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Liquid Morphologies on Structured Surfaces: From Microchannels to Microchips

Hartmut Gau, Stephan Herminghaus, Peter Lenz, Reinhard Lipowsky *

Liquid microchannels on structured surfaces are built up using a wettability pattern consisting of hydrophilic stripes on a hydrophobic substrate. These channels undergo a shape instability at a certain amount of adsorbed volume, from a homogeneous state with a spatially constant cross section to a state with a single bulge. This instability is quite different from the classical Rayleigh Plateau instability and represents a bifurcation between two different morphologies of constant mean curvature. The bulge state can be used to construct channel networks that could be used as fluid microchips or microreactors.

H. Gau and S. Herminghaus, Max-Planck-Institute (MPI) of Colloids and Interfaces, Rudower Chaussee 5, D-12489, Berlin-Adlershof, Germany. P. Lenz and R. Lipowsky, MPI of Colloids and Interfaces, Kantstrasse 55, D-14513 Teltow-Seehof, Germany.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The capillarity of nanometric water menisci confined inside closed-geometry viral cages.
C. Carrasco, M. Douas, R. Miranda, M. Castellanos, P. A. Serena, J. L. Carrascosa, M. G. Mateu, M. I. Marques, and P. J. de Pablo (2009)
PNAS 106, 5475-5480
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Wetting morphologies at microstructured surfaces.
R. Seemann, M. Brinkmann, E. J. Kramer, F. F. Lange, and R. Lipowsky (2005)
PNAS 102, 1848-1852
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
From The Cover: Osmotic water transport through carbon nanotube membranes.
A. Kalra, S. Garde, and G. Hummer (2003)
PNAS 100, 10175-10180
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Surface-Directed Liquid Flow Inside Microchannels.
B. Zhao, J. S. Moore, and D. J. Beebe (2001)
Science 291, 1023-1026
   Abstract »    Full Text »
High-Resolution Inkjet Printing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits.
H. Sirringhaus, T. Kawase, R. H. Friend, T. Shimoda, M. Inbasekaran, W. Wu, and E. P. Woo (2000)
Science 290, 2123-2126
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Field-Effect Flow Control for Microfabricated Fluidic Networks.
R. B. Schasfoort, S. Schlautmann, J. Hendrikse, and A. van den Berg (1999)
Science 286, 942-945
   Abstract »    Full Text »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)