The Microfluidics Flow and Transport Laboratory: A New User Facility at PNNL's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
Abstract
The Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at PNNL, in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, has developed a microfluidics capability to investigate the effects of fluid flow and transport at the microscale. Currently the EMSL houses the Subsurface Flow and Transport Laboratory (SFTL) in which EMSL Users have the opportunity to conduct column- and intermediate-scale research. The new Microfluidics Flow and Transport Laboratory (MFTL) will address fundamental scaling issues associated with fluid flow and reactive transport from both a combined experimental and theoretical approach at the micron scale, bridge the gap in experimental capabilities from the molecular scale within EMSL to the laboratory scales currently available in the SFTL, and permit simultaneous spatially and time resolved spectroscopic examination of geochemical and/or biogeochemical processes. Micromodels are two- dimensional representations of porous media etched in into silicon wafers, glass or polymers. Better control of pore network geometry is generally obtained by etching silicon. Pore sizes are typically on the order of tens of microns, but can be configured to be both smaller and larger. Fluid injection occurs with low-pulsation, high-precision syringe pumps. Images are obtained with an inverted fluorescent microscope. In this presentation, the new laboratory will be described and the mechanisms of user access will be explained.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008AGUFM.H41F0937O
- Keywords:
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- 1832 Groundwater transport