文献类型：期刊文献

英文题名：Anisotropic microfluidics and flow monitoring with a microchannel towards soft-matter sensing

作者：Zhao, Si-Chun[1];Yuan, Cong-Long[2];Wang, Yi-Fei[2];Sun, Pei-Zhi[2];Liu, Bing-Hui[2];Hu, Hong-Long[1,3];Shen, Dong;Zheng, Zhi-Gang[1]

机构：[1]East China Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Phys, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China;[2]East China Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Mat Sci & Engn, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China;[3]East China Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Chem & Mol Engn, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China

年份：2022

卷号：10

期号：32

起止页码：11767

外文期刊名：JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY C

收录：;EI(收录号：20223212555303);WOS:【SCI-EXPANDED(收录号:WOS:000835901500001)】；

基金：The authors acknowledge the support from the National Science Foundation of China (grant no. 61822504, 51873060, and 62035008), Innovation Program of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, Scientific Committee of Shanghai (2021-01-07-00-02-E00107), and ``Shuguang Program'' of Shanghai Education Development Foundation and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (21SG29).

语种：英文

外文关键词：Anisotropy - Flow rate - Liquid crystals - Microfluidics

摘要：Flow monitoring of a fluid confined in a regular microchamber has become essential for fundamental studies and applications, resulting in a bloom in microfluidic techniques. The unique properties of anisotropic fluids make it possible to monitor and feedback the flow dynamics without the assistance of additional complicated external devices. Herein, we develop a fantastic microfluidics device with optically anisotropic liquid crystals to reflect the real-time flow rate via analysis of the interference colors and corresponding transmittance spectra of the liquid crystals confined in a judiciously designed microchannel. A linear relationship between the transmission spectral shift rate and the flow rate is initially observed, thereby enabling a fantastic capability to sense the flow rate of the target fluid in a closed chamber or pipeline. The measurement range of flow rate covers 150 nL min(-1) to 6500 nL min(-1) when the cross-section size of the microchannel is 60 x 10 mu m(2). This range can be efficiently expanded and the performance can be further enhanced by altering the channel size. This work provides a feasible strategy for flow monitoring and other possible dynamic behaviours of fluids by integrating a microfluidic chip with the tested systems, therefore unlocking the long-sought full potential of such non-invasive optical microfluidic techniques in chemical engineering, environmental monitoring, biological medicine, and even microfluidic photonics.