Ultra-Stretchable Microfluidic Devices for Optimizing Particle Manipulation in Viscoelastic Fluids.

Viscoelastic microfluidics leverages the unique properties of non-Newtonian fluids to manipulate and separate micro- or submicron particles. Channel geometry and dimension are crucial for device performance. Traditional rigid microfluidic devices require numerous iterations of fabrication and testing to optimize these parameters, which is time-consuming and costly.

Periodic Flows in Microfluidics.

Microfluidics, the science and technology of manipulating fluids in microscale channels, offers numerous advantages, such as low energy consumption, compact device size, precise control, fast reaction, and enhanced portability. These benefits have led to applications in biomedical assays, disease diagnostics, drug discovery, neuroscience, and so on. Fluid flow within microfluidic channels is typically in the laminar flow region, which is characterized by low Reynolds numbers but brings the challenge of efficient mixing of fluids.

Asymmetrical Obstacles Enable Unilateral Inertial Focusing and Separation in Sinusoidal Microchannel.

Inertial microfluidics uses the intrinsic fluid inertia in confined channels to manipulate the particles and cells in a simple, high-throughput, and precise manner. Inertial focusing in a straight channel results in several equilibrium positions within the cross sections. Introducing channel curvature and adjusting the cross-sectional aspect ratio and shape can modify inertial focusing positions and can reduce the number of equilibrium positions.

Effects of alkali, autoclaving, and Fe+ autoclaving pretreatment on anaerobic digestion performance of coking sludge from the perspective of sludge extracts and methane production.

Pretreatment of activated sludge is an important step in increasing the reaction speed during anaerobic digestion by accelerating the hydrolysis process. It is necessary not only to analyze the changes in the general properties of the sludge before and after pretreatment but also to further analyze and evaluate the sludge structure and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). In this study, the changes in coking sludge extracts after pretreatments with alkali, autoclaving, and Fe+ autoclaving were analyzed and compared using EPS heat extraction method.