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Self‐Sealed Bionic Long Microchannels with Thin Walls and Designable Nanoholes Prepared by Line‐Contact Capillary‐Force Assembly
Author(s) -
Lao ZhaoXin,
Hu YanLei,
Pan Deng,
Wang RenYan,
Zhang ChenChu,
Ni JinCheng,
Xu Bing,
Li JiaWen,
Wu Dong,
Chu JiaRu
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201603957
Subject(s) - capillary action , materials science , van der waals force , fabrication , contact angle , microfluidics , nanotechnology , capillary number , nanofluidics , femtosecond , thin film , evaporation , optoelectronics , laser , composite material , optics , chemistry , medicine , alternative medicine , physics , organic chemistry , pathology , molecule , thermodynamics
Long microchannels with thin walls, small width, and nanoholes or irregular shaped microgaps, which are similar to capillaries or cancerous vessels, are urgently needed to simulate the physiological activities in human body. However, the fabrication of such channels remains challenging. Here, microchannels with designable holes are manufactured by combining laser printing with line‐contact capillary‐force assembly. Two microwalls are first printed by femtosecond laser direct‐writing, and subsequently driven to collapse into a channel by the capillary force that arises in the evaporation of developer. The channel can remain stable in solvent due to the enhanced Van der Waals' force caused by the line‐contact of microwalls. Microchannels with controllable nanoholes and almost arbitrary patterns can be fabricated without any bonding or multistep processes. As‐prepared microchannels, with wall thicknesses less than 1 µm, widths less than 3 µm, lengths more than 1 mm, are comparable with human capillaries. In addition, the prepared channels also exhibit the ability to steer the flow of liquid without any external pump.