Name: fabrication and visualization of capillary bridges in slit pore geometry
Uploaded: 2014-01-09T13:45:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Fabrication and Visualization of Capillary Bridges in Slit Pore Geometry at JoVE.com

The authors are grateful for the support of the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CMMI-00748094 and the ONR N000141110629.

The protocol text is broken up into three main sections: 1) the fabrication of the of the PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) pillars, 2) the functionalization of the tops of the pillars, and 3) the formation and characterization of the capillary bridges.
1. Fabrication of the PDMS Pillars
This section details the fabrication of the PDMS pillars using die casting with a silicon/SU-8 mold.
<ol>
	<li>Fabrication of silicon/SU-8 mold
	<ol>
		<li>Place a clea...

<ol>
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The method presented here provides a way to create capillary bridges in slit pore geometry, and also a method for imaging these bridges so that their morphology can be analyzed and compared to simulation and theory.
This method incorporates physical relief as well as selective chemical patterning to create asymmetric wetting properties. If only a chemical heterogeneity is present, a liquid drop will stay pinned on the heterogeneity until the contact angle exceeds that of the less wettable (low...

The study of the shape and resulting forces caused by capillary bridges has been the subject of extensive studies2-7. Initially most efforts were focused, due to their simplicity, on axisymmetric capillary bridges. Often capillary bridges occurring in natural systems, such as those found in granular and porous media8,9&#160;and bridges employed in technological applications, such as for capillary self-assembly in flip chip technologies10-15 are asymmetric with nonuniform wetting properties on the interacting surfaces. The combination of improved lithography techniques along with the accessibility of simple numerical tools to model fluid interfaces allows for the creation and modeling of capillary bridges with increasing complexity.
Capillary bridges in slit-pore geometry offer an interesting compromise: the directional wetting properties lead to nonaxisymmetric bridges that retain some symmetry planes (which simplifies the analysis). They have been studied theoretically and numerically as a case study for porous media. Systematic experimental studies of capillary bridges in slit-pore geometry have, however, been limited. Here we present a method to create and characterize capillary bridges in slit pore geometry. Briefly, the method consists of 1) the fabrication of pillars to create a chemical and physical heterogeneity, 2) the design of a microstage to align and manipulate the bridges, and 3) the imaging of the capillary bridges either from the front or the sides to characterize their morphology. The characterization of the bridge morphology, along with comparisons to surface evolver simulations are provided in a separate publication1.

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			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:167px;">99.999% Gold wire</td>
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			<td style="width:91px;">EVMAU40040</td>
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			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:167px;">Acetone</td>
			<td style="width:84px;">Pharmco-AAPER</td>
			<td style="width:91px;">C1107283</td>
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			<td height="25" style="height:25px;width:167px;">Dimethyl sulfoxide</td>
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			<td style="width:91px;">D128-500</td>
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			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:167px;">Ethanol (200 proof)</td>
			<td style="width:84px;">Pharmco-AAPER</td>
			<td style="width:91px;">111000200</td>
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			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:167px;">Hydrochloric acid</td>
			<td style="width:84px;">EMD</td>
			<td style="width:91px;">HX0603-4</td>
			<td style="width:84px;"></td>
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			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:167px;">Hydrogen peroxide (30%)</td>
			<td style="width:84px;">EMD</td>
			<td style="width:91px;">HX0635-3</td>
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			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:167px;">Isopropyl alcohol</td>
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			<td style="width:91px;">L-13597</td>
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			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:167px;">Mercapto hexadecanoic acid (90%)</td>
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			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:167px;">Nitrogen (gas)</td>
			<td style="width:84px;">Airgas</td>
			<td style="width:91px;">UN1066</td>
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			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:167px;">Oxygen (gas)</td>
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			<td style="width:91px;">UN1072</td>
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			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:167px;">Silicon wafers (4 in)</td>
			<td style="width:84px;">WRS Materials</td>
			<td style="width:91px;">CC8506</td>
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			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:167px;">SU-8 2002 (negative photo resist)</td>
			<td style="width:84px;">MicroChem</td>
			<td style="width:91px;">SU82002</td>
			<td style="width:84px;"></td>
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			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:167px;">SU-8 2050 (negative photoresist)</td>
			<td style="width:84px;">MicroChem</td>
			<td style="width:91px;">SU82050</td>
			<td style="width:84px;"></td>
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			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:167px;">SU-8 Developer solution</td>
			<td style="width:84px;">MicroChem</td>
			<td style="width:91px;">Y020100 4000L1PE</td>
			<td style="width:84px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="64">
			<td height="64" style="height:64px;width:167px;">Sulfuric acid</td>
			<td style="width:84px;">J.T. Baker</td>
			<td style="width:91px;">9681-03</td>
			<td style="width:84px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="43">
			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:167px;">Poly dimethy sulfoxide (PDMS)</td>
			<td style="width:84px;">Dow Corning</td>
			<td style="width:91px;">Sylgard -184</td>
			<td style="width:84px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="22">
			<td height="22" style="height:22px;width:167px;">Toluene</td>
			<td style="width:84px;">Omnisolv</td>
			<td style="width:91px;">TX0737-1</td>
			<td style="width:84px;">
			
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fabrication and visualization of capillary bridges in slit pore geometry

A procedure for creating and imaging capillary bridges in slit-pore geometry is presented. High aspect ratio hydrophobic pillars are fabricated and functionalized to render their top surfaces hydrophilic. The combination of a physical feature (the pillar) with a chemical boundary (the hydrophilic film on the top of the pillar) provides both a physical and chemical heterogeneity that pins the triple contact line, a necessary feature to create stable long but narrow capillary bridges. The substrates with the pillars are attached to glass slides and secured into custom holders. The holders are then mounted onto four axis microstages and positioned such that the pillars are parallel and facing each other. The capillary bridges are formed by introducing a fluid in the gap between the two substrates once the separation between the facing pillars has been reduced to a few hundred micrometers. The custom microstage is then employed to vary the height of the capillary bridge. A CCD camera is positioned to image either the length or the width of the capillary bridge to characterize the morphology of the fluid interface. Pillars with widths down to 250 &#181;m and lengths up to 70 mm were fabricated with this method, leading to capillary bridges with aspect ratios (length/width) of over 1001.

Description of the experimental device
The experimental device can be broken up into four main parts: 1) the top substrate stage, 2) the bottom substrate stage, 3) the syringe/ syringe xyz-translation stage and 4) the camera/optics and camera holder. The details of each follow:
<ol>
	<li>Top substrate stage. A digital translation stage is attached to a P-series mounting clamp via a custom machined connector piece. The mounting clamp is connected to a variable height P-post, w...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Fabrication and Visualization of Capillary Bridges in Slit Pore Geometry at JoVE.com

Fabrication and Visualization of Capillary Bridges in Slit Pore Geometry

A procedure for creating and imaging capillary bridges in slit-pore geometry is presented. The creation of capillary bridges relies on the formation of pillars to provide a directional physical and chemical heterogeneity to pin the fluid. Capillary bridges are formed and manipulated using microstages and visualized using a CCD camera.

A procedure for creating and imaging capillary bridges in slit-pore geometry is presented. High aspect ratio hydrophobic pillars are fabricated and ...

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