title: Chemical separations by bubble-assisted interphase mass-transfer.
abstract: We show that when a small amount of heat is added close to a liquid-vapor interface of a captive gas bubble in a microchannel, interphase mass-transfer through the bubble can occur in a controlled manner with only a slight change in the temperature of the fluid. We demonstrate that this method, which we refer to as bubble-assisted interphase mass-transfer (BAIM), can be applied to interphase chemical separations, e.g., simple distillation, without the need for high temperatures, vacuum, or active cooling. Although any source of localized heating could be used, we illustrate BAIM with an all-optical technique that makes use of the plasmon resonance in an array of nanoscale metal structures that are incorporated into the channel to produce localized heating of the fluid when illuminated by a stationary low-power laser.
authors.affiliation: Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA. daboyd@caltech.edu
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Boyd
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Adleman
authors.forename: David G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Goodwin
authors.forename: Demetri
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Psaltis
mesh_terms: D005740:Gases / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008970:Molecular Weight
chemical_list: D005740:Gases