Nanofluidic mixing via hybrid surface

We report the design and fabrication of the nanofluidic mixer comprising hybrid hydrophobic/hydrophilic micro-patterns on the top and bottom walls of the nanochannel. The unique feature of such mixer is that, without any geometric structure inside the nanochannel, the mixing can be realized solely by the hybrid surfaces. Besides, the mixing length in nanomixer has been significantly shortened comparing to micromixer. We attribute the mixing achievement to be caused by the convection and chaotic flows of two fluids along the hybrid surface due to the large surface-to-volume ratio of the nanochannel. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.