Capillarity-Driven Flows at the Continuum Limit

摘要

We experimentally investigate the dynamics of capillary-driven flows at thenanoscale, using an original platform that combines nanoscale pores andmicrofluidic features. Our results show a coherent picture across multipleexperiments including imbibition, poroelastic transient flows, and adrying-based method that we introduce. In particular, we exploit extreme dryingstresses - up to 100 MPa of tension - to drive nanoflows and providequantitative tests of continuum theories of fluid mechanics and thermodynamics(e.g. Kelvin-Laplace equation) across an unprecedented range. We isolate thebreakdown of continuum as a negative slip length of molecular dimension.