Hadi Nazaripoor

Compact micro/nano electrohydrodynamic patterning: using a thin conductive film and a patterned template.

The influence of electrostatic heterogeneity on the electric-field-induced destabilization of thin ionic liquid (IL) films is investigated to control spatial ordering and to reduce the lateral dimension of structures forming on the films. Commonly used perfect dielectric (PD) films are replaced with ionic conductive films to reduce the lateral length scales to a sub-micron level in the EHD pattering process. The 3-D spatiotemporal evolution of a thin IL film interface under homogenous and heterogeneous electric fields is numerically simulated. Finite differences in the spatial directions using an adaptive time step ODE solver are used to solve the 2-D nonlinear thin film equation. The validity of our simulation technique is determined from close agreement between the simulation results of a PD film and the experimental results in the literature. Replacing the flat electrode with the patterned one is found to result in more compact and well-ordered structures particularly when an electrode with square block protrusions is used. This is attributed to better control of the characteristic spatial lengths by applying a heterogeneous electric field by patterned electrodes. The structure size in PD films is reduced by a factor of 4 when they are replaced with IL films, which results in nano-sized features with well-ordered patterns over the domain.

Analytical solution for transient electroosmotic flow in a rotating microchannel

An analytical solution is developed for the unsteady flow of fluid through a parallel rotating plate microchannel, under the influence of electrokinetic force using the Debye–Huckel (DH) approximation. Transient Navier–Stokes equations are solved exactly in terms of the cosine Fourier series using the separation of variables method. The effects of frame rotation frequency and electroosmotic force on the fluid velocity and the flow rate distributions are investigated. The rotating system is found to have a damped oscillatory behavior. It is found that the period and the decay rate of the oscillations are independent of the DH parameter (κ). A time dependent structure of the boundary layer is observed at higher rotational frequencies. Furthermore, the rotation is shown to generate a secondary flow and a parameter is defined (β(t)) to examine the ratio of the flow in the y and x directions. It showed that both the angular velocity and the Debye–Huckel parameters are influential on the induced transient secondary flow in the y direction. At high values of the Debye–Huckel parameter and the rotation parameter the flow rates in the x and y directions are found to be identical. The analytical solution results are found to be in good agreement with the numerical method results and previously published work in this field.

Thermo-Electrohydrodynamic Patterning in Nanofilms

To improve the electrically assisted patterning process and create smaller sized features with the higher active surface area, the combined thermocapillary-electrohydrodynamic (TC-EHD) instability of liquid nanofilms is considered. First, the 3-D thin film equation is rederived for nonisothermal films and then the influential factors on the dynamics and stability of thin liquid film are found using linear stability (LS) analysis. Nonlinear studies are also conducted to investigate the long-time evolution of the interface using an in-house developed Fortran code employing high order finite difference and adaptive time step solver for the spatial and time derivatives. The number density of pillars (columnar raised structure) formed in 1 μm(2) area is significantly increased compared to the EHD base-case and nanosized pillars are created due to the thermocapillary effects. Relative interface area increases of up to 18% due to this pattern miniaturization are realized. It is also found that increase in the thermal conductivity ratio of layers changes the mechanism of pattern formation resulting in nonuniform and randomly distributed micro pillars being generated.

Ordered high aspect ratio nanopillar formation based on electrical and thermal reflowing of prepatterned thin films

Creating well-ordered, submicron-sized pillars have been stated as main limitation for electrically induced patterning of nanofilms (thickness <100 nm) [1]. In our previous works, it was shown that the aspect ratio of formed nanopillars was increased to about 0.35 when thermocapillary induced instabilities (Thermally Induced Patterning, TIP) is combined with electrodynamics instabilities (Electrically Induced Patterning, EIP). However, further reduction of pillar size resulted in a coarse and randomly distributed pillars [2,3]. Here, the reflowing of initially prepatterned nanofilms are examined in the EIP and combined EIP-TIP process to create a well-ordered and high aspect ratio nanopillar arrays without sacrificing the fidelity of the final structure. The long-wave approximation is used to simplify the governing equations and boundary conditions leading to a fourth order nonlinear partial differential equation called thin film equation that describes the spatio-temporal evolution of the interface. The mechanism of pattern reflowing is discussed for both linear (initial) and nonlinear (long-term) deformations in EIP and EIP-TIP process. The optimum initial pattern width, height and the center-to-center distance is found based on the characteristic wavelength for growth of instabilities predicted by linear stability analysis and nonlinear simulation results.

Effect of intrinsic angular momentum in the capillary filling dynamics of viscous fluids

In this study, an analytical model is provided to describe the filling dynamics of a capillary filled with a viscous fluid containing spinning particles. The aim is to demonstrate the effect of angular momentum on the capillary filling dynamics of molecular fluids which has not been explored before. The presence of spinning particles generates additional coefficients of viscosity, namely, spin viscosity and vortex viscosity, which couples rotational and translational movements. Three different time stages have been noticed during the capillary filling phenomenon: inertia force dominated, visco-inertial, and viscous-dominated regions. The last two regions are found to be mainly affected by the spinning particles. An increase in the spin and vortex viscosities is found to increase the viscous force and thus reduce the front position of the moving liquid. The results of this study are validated using the literature no-angular-momentum (NAM) base-case results and an excellent agreement is observed.

Dynamics of Thin Liquid Bilayers Subjected to an External Electric Field

Spatiotemporal evolution of liquid-liquid interface leading to dewetting and pattern formation is investigated for thin liquid bilayeres subjected to the long range electrostatic force and the short range van der Waals forces. Based on the 2D weakly non-linear thin film equation three dimensional structure evolution is numerically simulated. A combined finite difference for the spatial dimensions and an adaptive time step ODE solver is used to solve the governing equation. For initially non-wetting surfaces, the stabilizing effects of viscosity and interfacial tension and the destabilizing effect of the Hamaker constant are investigated. Electrostatic interaction is calculated analytically for both perfect dielectric-perfect dielectric and ionic conductive-perfect dielectric bilayers. Ionic conductive-perfect dielectric bilayers based on the electric permittivity ratio of layers are found to be stabilized or deformed in response to the applied external electric field.Copyright