Dynamics of wicking in silicon nanopillars fabricated with interference lithography and metal-assisted chemical etching.
The capillary rise of liquid on a surface, or "wicking", has potential applications in biological and industrial processes such as drug delivery, oil recovery, and integrated circuit chip cooling. This paper presents a theoretical study on the dynamics of wicking on silicon nanopillars based on a balance between the driving capillary forces and viscous dissipation forces. Our model predicts that the invasion of the liquid front follows a diffusion process and strongly depends on the structural geometry. The model is validated against experimental observations of wicking in silicon nanopillars with different heights synthesized by interference lithography and metal-assisted chemical etching techniques. Excellent agreement between theoretical and experimental results, from both our samples and data published in the literature, was achieved.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Trong Thi
TT
Mai
Chang Quan
CQ
Lai
H
H
Zheng
Karthik
K
Balasubramanian
K C
KC
Leong
P S
PS
Lee
Chengkuo
C
Lee
W K
WK
Choi
D002197:Capillary Action; D004058:Diffusion; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D007700:Kinetics; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology; D010316:Particle Size; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics; D017155:Wettability
D006046:Gold; D012825:Silicon