Li Yifan, Fischer Robert, Zboray Robert, Boillat Pierre, Camenzind Martin, Toncelli Claudio, Rossi Rene M
Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes & Textiles, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, St. Gallen 9014, Switzerland.
Chair of Building Physics, ETH Zürich, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich 8092, Switzerland.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Jul 1;12(26):29908-29916. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c03988. Epub 2020 Jun 22.
Steering capillary flow in textiles is of great significance in developing affordable and portable microfluidics devices. However, owing to the complex fibrous network, it remains a great challenge to achieve capillary flows with precise filling fronts. Here, an in situ laser engraving route is reported to accurately and rapidly etch textiles for manipulating capillary flow. The heterogeneity of the textile structure is enhanced because of the directional spreading of molten fibers polymer under the control of surface energy minimization. The principle of achieved anisotropic wicking of a water droplet in laser-engraved textiles is proposed. This understanding enables patterning the filling front of a fluid in different shapes, including arrow, straight line, diamond, and annulus. Precise capillary flow in textile-based microfluidics can benefit application in many fields, such as chemical analysis, biological detection, materials synthesis, multiliquid delivery. The laser engraving strategy has the advantages of simplicity, full scalability, and time rapidity, which provides an efficient avenue to steer capillary flow in diverse textiles for manufacturing customized microfluidic devices.
在纺织品中引导毛细流动对于开发经济实惠且便于携带的微流体设备具有重要意义。然而，由于纤维网络复杂，要实现具有精确填充前沿的毛细流动仍然是一项巨大挑战。在此，报道了一种原位激光雕刻方法，用于精确且快速地蚀刻纺织品以操控毛细流动。由于熔融纤维聚合物在表面能最小化的控制下定向铺展，纺织品结构的不均匀性得以增强。提出了激光雕刻纺织品中水滴实现各向异性芯吸的原理。这种认识使得能够将流体的填充前沿图案化为不同形状，包括箭头、直线、菱形和环形。基于纺织品的微流体中的精确毛细流动可在许多领域发挥作用，如化学分析、生物检测、材料合成、多液体输送。激光雕刻策略具有简单、完全可扩展性和快速性等优点，为在各种纺织品中引导毛细流动以制造定制微流体设备提供了一条有效途径。
