Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
18
Nanoluid
ics
Xin Hu and Weixiong Wang
CONTENTS
18.1. Introduction......................................................................................................................... 423
18.2. Basic.Theories...................................................................................................................... 424
18.2.1. Driving.Forces.in.Nanoluidics............................................................................ 424
18.2.2. Electrokinetics.in.Nanoluidics............................................................................ 425
18.2.3. Multiphase.Phenomena.in.Nanoluidics............................................................. 426
18.3. Fabrication.of.Nanoluidic.Devices.................................................................................. 426
18.4. Biomedical.Applications.of.Nanoluidics....................................................................... 428
18.4.1. Nanoluidic.DNA.Separation................................................................................ 428
18.4.2. Nanoluidic.DNA.Mapping.................................................................................. 431
18.4.3. Nanoluidic.Gene.Delivery................................................................................... 433
18.5. Conclusions.and.Perspectives.......................................................................................... 434
References..................................................................................................................................... 435
18.1 Introduction
Nanoluidics,.as.implied.by.its.name,.is.the.study.of.luids.at.the.nanoscale..Fluids.can.be.
Newtonian.luids.such.as.liquid.water.or.non-Newtonian.(complex).luids.such.as.dilute.
or. concentrated. polymer. solutions.. Current. research. in. nanoluidics. mainly. investigates.
effects. of. nanoconinement. on. luid. low. and. the. dynamics. of. ions,. nanoparticles,. and.
molecules.(Eijkel.and.van.den.Berg.2005;.Schoch.et.al..2008;.Bocquet.and.Charlaix.2010).
Nanoluidics. is. an. emerging. area. and. has. received. more. and. more. attention. these.
years,.not.only.because.there.are.many.unknowns.in.this.new.ield,.but.because.it.has.the.
potential.for.many.nanobiotechnology.applications..Compared.with.luidics.in.micro-.or.
macroscale,.nanoluidics.has.its.unique.ability.in.manipulating.transport.phenomena.of.
nanoparticles.and.biomolecules..We.will.discuss.this.thoroughly.in.the.following.sections.
In. this. chapter,. we. mainly. focus. on. biomedical. applications. of. nanoluidics. using.
luid.low.and.electrokinetic.forces..Concentration-driven.diffusion.of.nanoparticles.and.
biomolecules.is.just.briely.mentioned.as.a.driving.force.in.nanoscale.(see.Section.18.2.1),.
although. it. is. an. important. subject. of. nanoluidics. and. very. useful. for. controlled. drug.
delivery.. Heat. transfer. in. nanoluidics. is. not. covered. here,. since. little. work. toward.
biomedical.applications.has.been.reported.
This. chapter. is. organized. in. the. following. way:. in. Section. 18.2,. we. give. some. basic.
theories.on.nanoluidics.including.major.driving.forces,.electrokinetics,.and.multiphase.
phenomena..In.Section.18.3,.top-down.and.bottom-up.techniques.to.fabricate.nanoluidic.
423
