Experimental verification of Poiseuille flow in nanochannels

Abstract

The prediction of water transport in the nanochannels of a nanoporous membrane is crucial for the design and problem analysis of nanofluidic systems. In this study, we experimentally verified the no-slip boundary condition of the Poiseuille flow through the nanochannels by using a computational image processing method. Vertically-aligned nanochannel membranes (VNMs) were fabricated using the anodic aluminum oxidation process and chemical wet-etching process. Scanning electron microscope images of the VNMs were captured and processed computationally for determining the cross-sectional dimensions of the nanochannels. An experiment of water transport through the nanochannels of the VNMs was conducted, and the results were compared with theoretical calculations using image processing. The correspondence between the experimental results and theoretical calculations was greater than 97.5%.