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Innovations in Materials, Fabrication and Functionalization of Microfluidic Devices

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 January 2022) | Viewed by 5783

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cooperative State University Mannheim, Coblitzallee 1-9, 68163 Mannheim, Germany; American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME); The Electrochemical Society (ECS); Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (DPG); Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI); International Society for Porous Media (Interpore)
Interests: multiphase flow in porous media; simulation of flow in microfluidic devices; electrochemical energy storage; flow and transport in PEM fuel cells; additive manufacturing for improved heat transport

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Co-Guest Editor
Hochschule Mannheim, Institut für chemische Verfahrenstechnik, Paul-Wittsack-Straße 10 68163 Mannheim, Germany
Interests: chemical reactioning; micro reaktors; online analytics; multi-phase reaction; mixing in mirco reactors; scale-up micro to mini reactor

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, microfluidics has become an attractive field of research, since it has a wide range of applications, such as in lab-on-a-chip devices, cell analysis, cosmetics, drug delivery, microfabrication, and chemical synthesis.
Microfluidics is a subsection of fluidics usually in networks of channels with dimensions from tens to hundreds of micrometers and microliter volumes. Since the first approaches to miniaturizint the fluid flow devices in the 1990s, the discipline has grown enormously over the last three decades.
Microfluidic devices are manufactured with a large variety of methods and materials. Typical materials are polymers, including silicon-based polymers, inorganic materials such as glass or silicon, and paper. Traditional methods for microfabrication are photolithography and wet or dry etching. However, the use of additive manufacturing is getting more and more important. So-called 3D printing can also handle multicomponent materials.
The flow in microfluid devices, especially for multiphase flow, strongly depends on the surface properties. Thus, a surface treatment is very common in order to achieve properties such as hydrophobicity.
This Special Issue will focus on the innovations in materials on for microfluidic devices and their fabrication. Additionally, we are looking for contributions in the field of functionalization of microfluid devices

Prof. Dr. Volker Paul Schulz
Prof. Dr. Thorsten Röder
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Inorganic materials, such as glass, silicon or ceramics
  • Rigid polymers
  • Silicon-based polymers
  • Additive manufacturing
  • Surface treatment
  • Multiple-material devices

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

9 pages, 1558 KiB  
Article
Numerical Study of Joule Heating Effects on Microfluidics Device Reliability in Electrode Based Devices
by Caffiyar Mohammed Yousuff, Vineet Tirth, Mohamed Zackria Ansar Babu Irshad, Kashif Irshad, Ali Algahtani and Saiful Islam
Materials 2021, 14(19), 5819; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14195819 - 5 Oct 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1869
Abstract
In electrode-based microfluidic devices, micro channels having narrow cross sections generate undesirable temperature inside the microfluidic device causing strong thermal distribution (joule heating) that eventually leads to device damage or cell loss. In this work, we investigate the effects of joule heating due [...] Read more.
In electrode-based microfluidic devices, micro channels having narrow cross sections generate undesirable temperature inside the microfluidic device causing strong thermal distribution (joule heating) that eventually leads to device damage or cell loss. In this work, we investigate the effects of joule heating due to different electrode configuration and found that, electrodes with triangular arrangements produce less heating effect even at applied potential of 30 V, without compromising the performance of the device and separation efficiency. However, certain electrode materials have low thermal gradients but erode the channel quickly thereby affecting the reliability of the device. Our simulation also predicts optimal medium conductivity (10 mS/m with 10 V) for cells to survive inside the channel until they are selectively isolated into the collection outlet. Our investigations will aid the researchers in the designing of efficient and reliable microfluidic devices to overcome joule heating inside the microchannels. Full article
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21 pages, 5177 KiB  
Article
Directional Water Wicking on a Metal Surface Patterned by Microchannels
by Nima Abbaspour, Philippe Beltrame, Marie-Christine Néel and Volker P. Schulz
Materials 2021, 14(3), 490; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14030490 - 20 Jan 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3248
Abstract
This work focuses on the simulation and experimental study of directional wicking of water on a surface structured by open microchannels. Stainless steel was chosen as the material for the structure motivated by industrial applications as fuel cells. Inspired by nature and literature, [...] Read more.
This work focuses on the simulation and experimental study of directional wicking of water on a surface structured by open microchannels. Stainless steel was chosen as the material for the structure motivated by industrial applications as fuel cells. Inspired by nature and literature, we designed a fin type structure. Using Selective Laser Melting (SLM) the fin type structure was manufactured additively with a resolution down to about 30 μm. The geometry was manufactured with three different scalings and both the experiments and the simulation show that the efficiency of the water transport depends on dimensionless numbers such as Reynolds and Capillary numbers. Full 3D numerical simulations of the multiphase Navier-Stokes equations using Volume of Fluid (VOF) and Lattice-Boltzmann (LBM) methods reproduce qualitatively the experimental results and provide new insight into the details of dynamics at small space and time scales. The influence of the static contact angle on the directional wicking was also studied. The simulation enabled estimation of the contact angle threshold beyond which transport vanishes in addition to the optimal contact angle for transport. Full article
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