title: Water's tensile strength measured using an optofluidic chip.
abstract: In this paper, for the first time, the tensile strength of water is directly measured using an optofluidic chip based on the displacement of air-water interface deformation with homogeneous nucleation. When water in a microchannel is stretched dynamically via laser-induced shock reflection at the air-water interface, the shock pressures are determined by measuring the displacements of the deformed interface. Observation of the vapor bubbles is used as a probe to identify the cavitation threshold with a critical distance, and the tensile strength of water at 20 °C is measured to be -33.3 ± 2.8 MPa. This method can be extended to investigate the tensile strength of other soft materials such as glycerol, which is measured to be -59.8 ± 10.7 MPa at 20 °C.
authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798. lizh0018@ntu.edu.sg.
authors: Z G
authors: ZG
authors: Li
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Xiong
authors: L K
authors: LK
authors: Chin
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Ando
authors: J B
authors: JB
authors: Zhang
authors: A Q
authors: AQ
authors: Liu
mesh_terms: D005990:Glycerol / Q000737:chemistry; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013718:Tensile Strength; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D005990:Glycerol