Microfluidics in porous nanostructured materials studied by interferometric methods

Nanoscale fluid transport and phase changes in nanopore structures is of great interest for many application fields, such as energy conversion, DNA sequencing or water purification. In addition, the great spatial confinement in these structures makes it possible to explore extreme conditions of great interest in fundamental and applied sciences. On the other hand, the use of known simple fluids can be useful to characterize nanoporous membranes in a non-destructive way.

In this presentation, we explore different optical methods developed for the study of fluid dynamics in nanoporous membranes. When the scale of the structures are small compared to the wavelength, the system can be considered as an effective media of optical properties determined by the fraction of liquid present at each point. In this way, information at nomometer scale about fluid dynamics within the structure can be obtained non-destructively.

We will present the application of methods such as thin film interferometry, the use of photonic crystals and holography to study polymer dynamics under strong confinement and the infiltration-evaporation process of sessile droplets on nanoporous membranes.