A versatile microreactor protocol based on microfluidic droplets has been developed for on-line protein digestion. Proteins separated by liquid chromatography are fractionated in water-in-oil droplets and digested in sequence. The microfluidic reactor acts also as an electrospray ionization emitter for mass spectrometry analysis of the peptides produced in the individual droplets. Each droplet ...

Porous bone tissue engineering scaffolds were fabricated using both nano hydroxyapatite (nano HA) powder (20 nm average particle size) and micro HA powder (10 microm average particle size), resulting in sintered scaffolds of 59 vol% porosity and 8.6 +/- 1.9 microm average grain size and 72 vol% porosity and 588 +/- 55nm average grain size, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy was used to ...

Understanding how droplet condensation happens plays an essential role for our fundamental insights of wetting behaviors in nature and numerous applications. Since there is a lack of study of the initial formation and growing processes of condensed droplets down to nano-/submicroscale, relevant underlying mechanisms remain to be explored. We report an in situ observation of vapor condensation o...

An energetic micro-initiator through integrating Al/Ni nano-multilayers with Cu film bridge was investigated in this study. The Cu film bridge was initially fabricated with wet etching, and Al/Ni nano-multilayers were alternately deposited on the surface of Cu film bridge by magnetron sputtering. The periodic layer structure of Al/Ni nano-multilayers was verified by scanning electron microscopy...

We report the spontaneous generation of a cell-like morphology in an environment crowded with the polymers dextran and polyethylene glycol (PEG) in the presence of DNA. DNA molecules were selectively located in the interior of dextran-rich micro-droplets, when the composition of an aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) was near the critical condition of phase-segregation. The resulting micro-droplets...

In this study, the manufacturing methods and imaging principles of cone-shaped arrays of micro-nano structure films were examined. Because optical films fabricated using cone-shaped arrays of micro-nano structures generate a double diffusion and produce diverse light effects on light sources, these optical films can be used effectively to enhance optical efficiency and can thus be used widely i...

Mercury metal dispersed spontaneously into the aqueous solution as micro-droplets when it came in quiescent contact with the solution. The self-dispersion was observed by means of the dynamic light scattering method, thermogravimetry and voltammetry. The mercury microdroplets generated in water had ca. 0.3 m in diameter. The diameter and the concentration of the droplets were stable. The conce...

Preparing low energy liquid-repellant surfaces (superhydrophobic or superoleophobic) have attracted tremendous attention of late. In all these studies, the necessary liquid repellency is achieved by irreversible micro-nano texturing of the surfaces. Here we show for the first time that a glass surface, placed under water, can be made superoleophobic (with unprecedented contact angles close to 1...

This study investigates the effects of micro- and nano-sized SiC powder on the rheological behavior of Al based feedstocks for powder injection molding (PIM).  Different compositions of Al feedstocks with additions of micro and nano-SiC powder were prepared and their rheological properties were measured with a rotational rheometer. The effects of SiC content and shear rate were investigated and...

Recent research progress in the area of nano/micro scale nucleate boiling is reviewed and an up-to-date summary is provided with a focus on the advances of fundamental boiling physics. This review examines nano/micro scale pool boiling experimental and theoretical/numerical work reported in the open literature. On the experimental side, the topics covered are moving contact line, critical heat ...