Trieu Nguyen

Highly enhanced energy conversion from the streaming current by polymer addition

In this contribution, we present for the first time the experimental results of energy conversion from the streaming current when a polymer is added to the working solution. We added polyacrylic acid (PAA) in concentrations of 200 ppm to 4000 ppm to a KCl solution. By introducing PAA, the input power, which is the product of volumetric flow rate and the applied pressure, reduced rapidly as compared to the case of using only a normal viscous electrolyte KCl solution. The output power at the same time remained largely constant, whereby an increase of the streaming current and a decrease of the streaming potential simultaneously occurred. These combined factors led to the massive increase of the energy conversion efficiency. Particularly, the results showed that when PAA was in a 0.01 mM KCl solution, the energy conversion efficiency of the system was enhanced by a factor of 447 (±2%), as compared to the case of the solution containing only 0.01 mM KCl. An enhancement factor of 249 (±4%) was also observed when PAA was added to the higher ionic strength background solution, 1 mM KCl. This finding can have practical use in microchannel-array energy conversion systems. When, instead of the negatively charged PAA, a non-ionic polymer polyethylene oxide (PEO) was added to the solution, no efficiency increase was observed, probably due to polymer wall adsorption.

Surface Plasma Treatment of Polyimide Film for Cu Metallization

Surface modification of polyimide films by oxygen/argon atmospheric pressure plasma (APP) was studied for copper metallization under several conditions, including plasma treatment time, gas ratio, and power of radio frequency (RF; 13.56MHz) plasma. The effects of APP treatments on the surface properties of polyimide (PI) films were investigated in terms of Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and contact angle measurements. The results showed that the root-mean-squared (RMS) roughness of untreated PI films was 1.48nm, increasing to 2.08, 2.17, and 2.57nm after plasma treatment at 200, 400, and 600W, respectively. At the same time, the contact angle of untreated PI film was 73.0 � and reduced to 25.9, 20.3, and 17.3 � after plasma treatment at 200, 400, and 600W, respectively. The lowest contact angle and the maximum RMS roughness were 13 � and 8.50nm, respectively. Those values were achieved by oxygen/argon APP at an RF plasma power of 600W and with 50 repetitions. Also, X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to examine the Cu surface structure in the Cu/PI system to indicate the quality of Cu foil. The highest Ið111Þ=Ið200Þ ratio was 1.89 at an RF power of 600W by oxygen/argon APP treatment. # 2011 The Japan Society of Applied Physics

Complete Procedure for Fabrication of a Fused Silica Ultrarapid Microfluidic Mixer Used in Biophysical Measurements

In this paper we present a method to fabricate a fused silica microfluidic device by employing low viscosity KMPR photoresists. The resulting device is a continuous-flow microfluidic mixer based on hydrodynamic focusing. The advantages of this new fabrication method compared to the traditional approach using a poly-silicon mask are simplification, and time and cost reduction, while still preserving the quality and the performance of the mixers. This process results in devices in which the focusing channel has an aspect ratio of 10:1. The newly-fabricated mixer is successfully used to observe the folding of the Pin1 WW domain at the microsecond time scale.

From Lab on a Chip to Point of Care Devices: The Role of Open Source Microcontrollers

Microcontrollers are programmable, integrated circuit chips. In the last two decades, their applications to industrial instruments, vehicles, and household appliances have reached the extent that microcontrollers are now the number-one selling electronic chip of all kinds. Simultaneously, the field of lab-on-a-chip research and technology has seen major technological leaps towards sample handling, sample preparation, and sensing for use in molecular diagnostic devices. Yet, the transformation from a laboratory based lab-on-a-chip technology to actual point-of-care device products has largely been limited to a fraction of the foreseen potential. We believe that increased knowledge of the vast possibilities that becomes available with open source microcontrollers, especially when embedded in easy-to-use development environments, such as the Arduino or Raspberry Pi, could potentially solve and even bridge the gap between lab-on-a-chip technology and real-life point of care applications. The profuse availability and extraordinary capabilities of microcontrollers, namely within computation, communication, and networking, combined with easy-to-use development environments, as well as a very active and fast moving community of makers, who are eager to share their knowledge, could potentially be the difference between a dreadful “chip-in-a-lab”-situation, and the next successful start-up. Here follows a brief insight into how open source microcontrollers could potentially have a transformative effect on the field of lab-on-a-chip research and technology. Details in some specific areas of application are briefly treated before addressing challenges and future perspectives.