Microfluidic-SANS: flow processing of complex fluids
File(s)Scientific Reports_5_2015.pdf (1.84 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Cabral, JP
Watanabe, T
Martel, A
Porcar, L
Lopez, CG
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Understanding and engineering the flow-response of complex and non-Newtonian fluids at a molecular level is a key challenge for their practical utilisation. Here we demonstrate the coupling of microfluidics with small angle neutron scattering (SANS). Microdevices with high neutron transmission (up to 98%), low scattering background, broad solvent compatibility and high pressure tolerance (≈3–15 bar) are rapidly prototyped via frontal photo polymerisation. Scattering from single microchannels of widths down to 60 μm, with beam footprint of 500 μm diameter, was successfully obtained in the scattering vector range 0.01–0.3 Å−1, corresponding to real space dimensions. We demonstrate our approach by investigating the molecular re-orientation and alignment underpinning the flow response of two model complex fluids, namely cetyl trimethylammonium chloride/pentanol/D2O and sodium lauryl sulfate/octanol/brine lamellar systems. Finally, we assess the applicability and outlook of microfluidic-SANS for high-throughput and flow processing studies, with emphasis of soft matter.
Date Issued
2015-01-12
Citation
Scientific Reports, 2015, 5
ISSN
2045-2322
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Journal / Book Title
Scientific Reports
Volume
5
Copyright Statement
© 2015 the Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder in order to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License URL
Identifier
http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150112/srep07727/full/srep07727.html
7727
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
7727