Novel method for controlled wetting of materials in the environmental scanning electron microscope.

Environmental scanning electron microscopy has been extensively used for studying the wetting properties of different materials. For some types of investigation, however, the traditional ways of conducting in situ dynamic wetting experiments do not offer sufficient control over the wetting process. Here, we present a novel method for controlled wetting of materials in the environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM).

Cobalt (II) chloride promoted formation of honeycomb patterned cellulose acetate films.

CoCl(2) containing honeycomb patterned films were prepared from cellulose acetate (CA)/CoCl(2)/acetone solutions by the breath figure method in a wide range of humidities. Size and pore regularity depend on the CA/CoCl(2) molar ratio and humidity. When replacing CoCl(2) with Co(NO(3))(2) or CoBr(2), no formation of ordered porosity in the cellulose acetate films is observed.

Towards an electrowetting-based digital microfluidic platform for magnetic immunoassays.

We demonstrate ElectroWetting-On-Dielectric (EWOD) transport and SQUID gradiometer detection of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) suspended in a 2 microl de-ionized water droplet. This proof-of-concept methodology constitutes the first development step towards a highly sensitive magnetic immunoassay platform with SQUID readout and droplet-based sample handling. Magnetic AC-susceptibility measurements were performed on MNPs with a hydrodynamic diameter of 100 nm using a high-Tc dc Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) gradiometer as detector.