Capacitive platform for real-time wireless monitoring of liquid wicking in a paper strip
Metadatos
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2023-08-20Résumé
Understanding the phenomenon of liquid wicking in porous media is crucial for various applications,
including the transportation of fluids in soils, the absorption of liquids in textiles and paper, and the
development of new and efficient microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs). Hence, accurate
and real-time monitoring of the liquid wicking process is essential to enable precise flow transport and
control in microfluidic devices, thus enhancing their performance and usefulness. However, most existing
flow monitoring strategies require external instrumentation, are generally bulky and unsuitable for portable
systems. In this work, we present a portable, compact, and cost-effective electronic platform for real-time
and wireless flow monitoring of liquid wicking in paper strips. The developed microcontroller-based system
enables flow and flow rate monitoring based on the capacitance measurement of a pair of electrodes
patterned beneath the paper strip along the liquid path, with an accuracy of 4 fF and a full-scale range of 8
pF. Additionally to the wired transmission of the monitored data to a computer via USB, the liquid wicking
process can be followed in real-time via Bluetooth using a custom-developed smartphone application. The
performance of the capacitive monitoring platform was evaluated for different aqueous solutions (purified
water and 1 M NaCl solution), various paper strip geometries, and several custom-made chemical valves
for flow retention (chitosan-, wax-, and sucrose-based barriers). The experimental validation delivered a
full-scale relative error of 0.25%, resulting in an absolute capacitance error of ±10 fF. In terms of
reproducibility, the maximum uncertainty was below 10 nl s−1 for flow rate determination in this study.
Furthermore, the experimental data was compared and validated with numerical analysis through electrical
and flow dynamics simulations in porous media, providing crucial information on the wicking process, its
physical parameters, and liquid flow dynamics.