2015/10/01 by Olivier Vincent, Vincent, Olivier, Alexandre Szenicer +3 · 1 citation
Engineering · Materials Science · #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer #Fluid Dynamics and Thin Films #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Surface Modification and Superhydrophobicity
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1510.00411
openalex publication_date 2015/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We experimentally investigate the dynamics of capillary-driven flows at the nanoscale, using an original platform that combines nanoscale pores and microfluidic features. Our results show a coherent picture across multiple experiments including imbibition, poroelastic transient flows, and a drying-based method that we introduce. In particular, we exploit extreme drying stresses - up to 100 MPa of tension - to drive nanoflows and provide quantitative tests of continuum theories of fluid mechanics and thermodynamics (e.g. Kelvin-Laplace equation) across an unprecedented range. We isolate the breakdown of continuum as a negative slip length of molecular dimension.