Abstract
Abstract Chemical reactions can be efficiently carried out in microfluidic devices using a small amount of solution, meaning that fewer resources are required and less liquid waste is generated, making them energy-efficient and eco-friendly devices. However, the microchannel of the device has a narrow channel width, so the reaction solution exhibits laminar flow. Although this laminar flow is good for transporting the solution, efficiently conducting a chemical reaction is difficult in such a flow. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to produce a micromixer in which diffusion can be easily controlled in the microchannel. In this work, efficient stirring of the fluid was achieved only under laser irradiation by utilising the local light-to-heat conversion that occurs on plasmonic metal nanostructures placed in the microchannel. The gold nanostructure that covers a two-dimensional colloidal crystal, which was easily manufactured at low cost, has a high temperature of 200 °C or more only when irradiated with a laser, and the solution is vapourised and forms bubbles with a diameter of approximately 10 µm. The temperature difference on the bubble surface causes Marangoni convection, which can be used to efficiently stir the reaction solution in the assembled microfluidic device.
Published Version
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