Erfan Mazen, Gnambodoe-Capochichi Martine, Sabry Yasser M, Khalil Diaa, Leprince-Wang Yamin, Bourouina Tarik
ESYCOM, CNRS UMR 9007, Université Gustave Eiffel, ESIEE Paris, Noisy-le-Grand, France.
Ain Shams University, Faculty of Engineering, ECE Department, Cairo, Egypt.
Microsyst Nanoeng. 2021 Oct 11;7:77. doi: 10.1038/s41378-021-00308-4. eCollection 2021.
Co-integration of nanomaterials into microdevices poses several technological challenges and presents numerous scientific opportunities that have been addressed in this paper by integrating zinc oxide nanowires (ZnO-NWs) into a microfluidic chamber. In addition to the applications of these combined materials, this work focuses on the study of the growth dynamics and uniformity of nanomaterials in a tiny microfluidic reactor environment. A unique experimental platform was built through the integration of a noninvasive optical characterization technique with the microfluidic reactor. This platform allowed the unprecedented demonstration of time-resolved and spatially resolved monitoring of the in situ growth of NWs, in which the chemicals were continuously fed into the microfluidic reactor. The platform was also used to assess the uniformity of NWs grown quickly in a 10-mm-wide microchamber, which was intentionally chosen to be 20 times wider than those used in previous attempts because it can accommodate applications requiring a large surface of interaction while still taking advantage of submillimeter height. Further observations included the effects of varying the flow rate on the NW diameter and length in addition to a synergetic effect of continuous renewal of the growth solution and the confined environment of the chemical reaction.
将纳米材料与微器件进行共整合带来了若干技术挑战，同时也展现出众多科学机遇，本文通过将氧化锌纳米线（ZnO-NWs）整合到微流控腔室中来探讨这些问题。除了这些复合材料的应用之外，这项工作还聚焦于在微小的微流控反应器环境中研究纳米材料的生长动力学和均匀性。通过将一种非侵入式光学表征技术与微流控反应器相结合，构建了一个独特的实验平台。该平台实现了对纳米线原位生长的时间分辨和空间分辨监测，这是前所未有的，在此过程中化学物质被连续输送到微流控反应器中。该平台还用于评估在一个10毫米宽的微腔室中快速生长的纳米线的均匀性，特意选择该微腔室比之前尝试中使用的微腔室宽20倍，因为它既能适应需要大相互作用表面的应用，同时又能利用亚毫米级的高度。进一步的观察包括流速变化对纳米线直径和长度的影响，以及生长溶液的连续更新和化学反应的受限环境所产生的协同效应。
