Shuyu Chen

Optimal sound-absorbing structures

The causal nature of the acoustic response dictates an inequality that relates the two most important aspects of sound absorption: the absorption spectrum and the sample thickness. We use the causality constraint to delineate what is ultimately possible for sound absorbing structures, and denote those which can attain near-equality for the causality constraint to be “optimal.” Anchored by the causality relation, a design strategy is presented for realizing structures with target-set absorption spectra and a sample thickness close to the minimum value as dictated by causality. By using this approach, we have realized a 10.86 cm-thick structure that exhibits a broadband, near-perfect flat absorption spectrum starting at around 400 Hz, while the minimum sample thickness from the causality constraint is 10.36 cm. To illustrate the versatility of the approach, two additional optimal structures with different target absorption spectra are presented. This “absorption by design” strategy would enable the tailoring of customized solutions to difficult room acoustic and noise remediation problems.

Coalescence of Pickering emulsion droplets induced by an electric field.

Combining high-speed photography with electric current measurement, we investigate the electrocoalescence of Pickering emulsion droplets. Under a high enough electric field, the originally stable droplets coalesce via two distinct approaches: normal coalescence and abnormal coalescence. In the normal coalescence, a liquid bridge grows continuously and merges two droplets together, similar to the classical picture. In the abnormal coalescence, however, the bridge fails to grow indefinitely; instead, it breaks up spontaneously due to the geometric constraint from particle shells. Such connecting-then-breaking cycles repeat multiple times, until a stable connection is established. In depth analysis indicates that the defect size in particle shells determines the exact merging behaviors: when the defect size is larger than a critical size around the particle diameter, normal coalescence will show up, while abnormal coalescence will appear for coatings with smaller defects.

Copolymer solution-based “smart window”

The authors report the design of a prototype smart window based on the phenomenon of the thermally induced aggregation of triblock copolymer poly (ethylene oxide)–poly (propylene oxide)–poly (ethylene oxide) (EPE). Fluorescein isothiocyanate was used to label EPE and study aggregation phenomenon at different temperatures. The cloud point could be tuned by mixing EPE with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and varying the concentration of the latter. The light transmittance at different temperatures was studied as a function of SDS concentration.

Giant electrorheological fluid comprising nanoparticles: Carbon nanotube composite

We have fabricated suspensions exhibiting the giant electrorheological (GER) effect comprising nanoparticles—multiwall carbon nanotubes (MCNTs) composite particles dispersed in silicone oil. This type of GER fluids display dramatically enhanced antisedimentation characteristic without sacrificing the yield stress. The nanoparticles-nanotubes composites were fabricated by modifying the coprecipitation method with MCNTs and urea-coated barium titanyl-oxylate (BTRU) nanoparticles as the components. The composite solid particles are denoted MCNT-BTRU. In the best cases, stabilized suspensions with MCNT-BTRU particles dispersed in silicone oil have been maintained for several months without any appreciable sedimentation being observed. Both the sedimentary and rheological properties of the MCNT-BTRU suspension were systematically studied and compared with their BTRU counterparts. Yield stress as high as 194 kPa was obtained in the MCNT-BTRU suspensions. The MCNT-BTRU based GER fluids, with their antisedimentat...

Electroporation of micro-droplet encapsulated HeLa cells in oil phase

Electroporation (EP) is a method widely used to introduce foreign genes, drugs or dyes into cells by permeabilizing the plasma membrane with an external electric field. A variety of microfluidic EP devices have been reported so far. However, further integration of prior and posterior EP processes turns out to be very complicated, mainly due to the difficulty of developing an efficient method for precise manipulation of cells in microfluidics. In this study, by means of a T‐junction structure within a delicate microfluidic device, we encapsulated HeLa cells in micro‐droplet of poration medium in oil phase before EP, which has two advantages: (i) precise control of cell‐encapsulating droplets in oil phase is much easier than the control of cell populations or individuals in aqueous buffers; (ii) this can minimize the electrochemical reactions on the electrodes. Finally, we successfully introduced fluorescent dyes into the micro‐droplet encapsulated HeLa cells in oil phase. Our results reflected a novel way to realize the integrated biomicrofluidic system for EP.

High-flux water desalination with interfacial salt sieving effect in nanoporous carbon composite membranes

Freshwater flux and energy consumption are two important benchmarks for the membrane desalination process. Here, we show that nanoporous carbon composite membranes, which comprise a layer of porous carbon fibre structures grown on a porous ceramic substrate, can exhibit 100% desalination and a freshwater flux that is 3–20 times higher than existing polymeric membranes. Thermal accounting experiments demonstrated that the carbon composite membrane saved over 80% of the latent heat consumption. Theoretical calculations combined with molecular dynamics simulations revealed the unique microscopic process occurring in the membrane. When the salt solution is stopped at the openings to the nanoscale porous channels and forms a meniscus, the vapour can rapidly transport across the nanoscale gap to condense on the permeate side. This process is driven by the chemical potential gradient and aided by the unique smoothness of the carbon surface. The high thermal conductivity of the carbon composite membrane ensures that most of the latent heat is recovered.Nanoporous carbon composite membranes exhibit 100% salt rejection and high water flux due to the interfacial sieving effect and the fast transport of vapour in carbon pores, respectively.

Determining hydrodynamic boundary conditions from equilibrium fluctuations.

The lack of a first-principles derivation has made the hydrodynamic boundary condition a classical issue for the past century. The fact that the fluid can have interfacial structures adds additional complications and ambiguities to the problem. Here we report the use of molecular dynamics to identify from equilibrium thermal fluctuations the hydrodynamic modes in a fluid confined by solid walls, thereby extending the application of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem to yield not only the accurate location of the hydrodynamic boundary at the molecular scale, but also the relevant parameter value(s) for the description of the macroscopic boundary condition. We present molecular dynamics results on two examples to illustrate the application of this approach-one on the hydrophilic case and one on the hydrophobic case. It is shown that the use of the orthogonality condition of the modes can uniquely locate the hydrodynamic boundary to be inside the fluid in both cases, separated from the molecular solid-liquid interface by a small distance Δ that is a few molecules in size. The eigenvalue equation of the hydrodynamic modes directly yields the slip length, which is about equal to Δ in the hydrophilic case but is larger than Δ in the hydrophobic case. From the decay time we also obtain the bulk viscosity which is in good agreement with the value obtained from dynamic simulations. To complete the picture, we derive the Green-Kubo relation for a finite fluid system and show that the boundary fluctuations decouple from the bulk only in the infinite-fluid-channel limit; and in that limit we recover the interfacial fluctuation-dissipation theorem first presented by Bocquet and Barrat. The coupling between the bulk and the boundary fluctuations provides both the justification and the reason for the effectiveness of the present approach, which promises broad utility for probing the hydrodynamic boundary conditions relevant to structured or elastic interfaces, as well as two-phase immiscible flows.

Single-phase electrorheological effect in microgravity

We report the first observation of an electrorheological (ER) effect in a single phase ER suspension, comprising mono-dispersed dielectric particles, from a microgravity experiment. In microgravity, the particles can form stable single phase suspension without a suspending liquid, which is usually necessary for the conventional ER fluid. The size of the column structures formed by the particles exceeds the maximum column width usually observed in the two-phase ER fluids. Numerically evaluating the variation of the electric energy density with respect to the strain yields a good account of the measured data, especially in the low field region.