You can also search for this author in PubMed                                       Google Scholar                                       Ashleigh

Programmable capillary action controls fluid flows

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2021-07-02 19:00:03

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Ashleigh B. Theberge is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA, and in the Department of Urology, University of Washington.

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Scientists often draw inspiration from the world around them. In a paper in Nature, inspired by nature’s ability to efficiently perform processes involving multiple phases of matter, Dudukovic et al.1 present cellular fluidics: a technological platform in which many cubic building blocks with complex internal structures are assembled to guide fluid flow using capillary action. The authors use this platform to construct a variety of fluidic structures, and demonstrate that it can model important multiphase processes such as transpiration — by which trees absorb water through their roots and transport it to leaves at the tips of their branches, where it evaporates. Cellular fluidics also enables the fabrication of patterned multi-material structures, including objects that contain alternating electrically conducting and insulating regions.

Capillary action drives many processes, such as the wetting of hairs on a paint brush and eyes tearing up. It enables the flow of liquid in small spaces — in the gaps between fibres in a paper towel, for example, or in capillary tubes used to collect blood — without the need for external forces such as pumps. For this reason, it has found use in the field of microfluidics, which studies the movement of small volumes of fluid through spaces of submillimetre dimensions. Capillary action underpins many microfluidic technologies, such as at-home pregnancy tests and portable glucose monitors. By combining engineering, chemistry and physics, miniature ‘lab-on-a-chip’ devices such as these have been developed for use in many fields2.

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