A microfluidic labyrinth self-assembled by a chemical garden.
- Resource Type
- Academic Journal
- Authors
- Testón-Martínez S; Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC-Universidad de Granada, 18100 Armilla, Granada, Spain. s.testonmartinez@gmail.com.; Huertas-Roldán T; Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC-Universidad de Granada, 18100 Armilla, Granada, Spain. s.testonmartinez@gmail.com.; Knoll P; Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC-Universidad de Granada, 18100 Armilla, Granada, Spain. s.testonmartinez@gmail.com.; Barge LM; NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena CA, USA.; Sainz-Díaz CI; Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC-Universidad de Granada, 18100 Armilla, Granada, Spain. s.testonmartinez@gmail.com.; Cartwright JHE; Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC-Universidad de Granada, 18100 Armilla, Granada, Spain. s.testonmartinez@gmail.com.; Instituto Carlos I de Física Teórica y Computacional, Universidad de Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain.
- Source
- Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 100888160 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1463-9084 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 14639076 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Phys Chem Chem Phys Subsets: PubMed not MEDLINE; MEDLINE
- Subject
- Language
- English
Chemical gardens, self-assembling precipitates that spontaneously form when a metal salt is added to a solution of another precipitating anion, are of interest for various applications including producing reactive materials in controlled structures. Here, we report on two chemical garden reaction systems (CuCl 2 and Cu(NO 3 ) 2 seed crystals submerged in sodium silicate) that produced self-assembled microfluidic labyrinths in a vertical 2D Hele-Shaw reactor. The formation of labyrinths as well as the specific growth modes of the precipitate were dependent on the silicate concentration: CuCl 2 labyrinths formed only at 3 and 4 M silicate and Cu(NO 3 ) 2 labyrinths formed only at 4 and 5 M silicate. The labyrinth structures contained silicate on the exterior and crystalline material interpreted as hydrated minerals from the metal salt in their interiors. The bubble-guided tubes that form labyrinths can be controlled by changing the angle of the 2D reaction cell; this suggests that future experiments of this type could form self-organizing structures with controlled composition and orientation for use in microfluidics and various materials science applications.