Journal
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Volume 10, Issue 8, Pages 7362-7370Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b17764
Keywords
anisotropic; mesoporous; cellulose nanofibers; mass transport; microfluidics
Funding
- China Scholarship Council (CSC)
- Div Of Chem, Bioeng, Env, & Transp Sys
- Directorate For Engineering [1553330] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Cellulose paper has been extensively used in microfluidic analytical devices because of its hydrophilic nature. However, cellulose is randomly packed in paper without any particular orientation or channels within the bulk of the material, necessitating a complicated design of hydrophilic microchannels to guide the liquid flow. Herein, we develop an anisotropic mesoporous microfluidic framework (named as white wood) with aligned cellulose nanofibers and inherent microchannels via a facile one-step delignification process from natural wood. The hydrophilic nature of the innate microchannels in white wood makes it ideal for application as a pump-free microfluidic chip, exhibiting a fast and anisotropic liquid and large solid particle (as demonstrated with carbon nanotubes) mass transport, with a high transport speed along the channel direction approximately five times faster than that perpendicular to the channel direction. The anisotropic mass transport is further exemplified in the fabrication of chitosan films with aligned microstructures and birefringence, formed by virtue of unidirectional capillary forces exerted by the microchannels. We envision that our anisotropic mesoporous framework can have great applications to pump-free microfluidics, and the simple preparation process will pave a new way for the development of microfluidic devices based on chemically modified wood.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available