Influence of surface modifications and channel structure for microflows of supercritical carbon dioxide and water

Miniaturization offers a possibility to increase the performance and decrease the time scales of systems. Existing microsystems using supercritical CO2 mainly utilizes multiphase segmented flows. To allow for a broader toolbox for future systems, also parallel flows are useful which eases the separation of the different phases. Here, the effect of different surface coatings are studied for multiphase flows of scCO2 and H2O in flat microchannels, with and without a 4 μm high ridge guide, which allows for pinning of the fluid interface inside the 190 μm wide and 35 μm high channel. Three different surfaces with different wettings towards scCO2 and H2O are studied, where a surface terminated with a hydrocarbon-based silane was observed to be neutral in the H2O/scCO2 system, a surface terminated with a fluorocarbon-based silane was hydrophobic, and an uncoated glass surface was hydrophilic. Using two flow rates of 5:5 μl/min (CO2:H2O) and 6.5:3.5 μl/min (CO2:H2O), a parallel flow between scCO2 and H2O was observed for uncoated and flat channels where the H2O flow pushed the CO2 to the side, before the flows eventually breaks up into segments. With a ridge guide in the middle of the channel, the interface was pinned at half the channel width, although still breaking up into segments. The neutral hydrocarbon-based surface coating with approximately 90° contact angles resulted in evenly created segments without a ridge guide. Including a guide in the middle of the channel, a parallel flow was observed throughout the channel, although occasionally small CO2 segments entered the H2O outlet. Using the fluorocarbon-based silane resulted in an unstable segmented system with pressure fluctuations. Using surface modifications, an increased control can be achieved for either segmentation or parallel flow where a neutral surface is favored for a stable flow behavior. Together with a ridge guide, the fluid interface was pinned at the center.