Alam Mujeeb, Gill Arshdeep Kaur, Varshney Rohit, Miglani Chirag, Tiwari Naveen, Patra Debabrata
Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Knowledge City, Sector 81, SAS Nagar, Mohali, Punjab, 140306, India.
Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 208016, India.
Soft Matter. 2022 Aug 3;18(30):5605-5614. doi: 10.1039/d2sm00510g.
Self-powered supramolecular micropumps could potentially provide a solution for powerless microfluidic devices where the fluid flow can be manipulated modulating non-covalent interactions. An attempt has been made to fabricate thin-film-based micropumps by depositing a β-cyclodextrin ('host') functionalized polymer on a glass slide layer-by-layer assembly. These supramolecular micropumps turned on the fluid flow upon addition of 'guest' molecules to the multilayer films. The flow velocity was tuned using the concentration of the guest molecules as well as the number of host layers inside the multilayer films. Numerical modelling reveals that the solutal buoyancy, which originates from host-guest complexation, is primarily responsible for the fluid flow. In view of its potential application in self-powered devices, the thin-film-based micropump was integrated into a microfluidic device to show molecular and colloidal transport over long distances.
自供电超分子微泵有可能为无源微流控设备提供一种解决方案，在这类设备中，流体流动可通过调节非共价相互作用来操控。人们尝试通过逐层组装的方式，将β-环糊精（“主体”）功能化聚合物沉积在载玻片上来制造基于薄膜的微泵。当向多层膜中添加“客体”分子时，这些超分子微泵就会开启流体流动。流速可通过客体分子的浓度以及多层膜中主体层的数量来调节。数值模拟表明，源自主客体络合作用的溶质浮力是流体流动的主要原因。鉴于其在自供电设备中的潜在应用，基于薄膜的微泵被集成到微流控设备中，以展示分子和胶体的长距离传输。
