Vapor-condensation and capillarity-driven, spontaneous imbibition allow one to fill nanoporous media in a controlled manner with molecular liquids. We present experimental studies on the dynamics of these filling processes for a variety of porous media (silicon, silica, and gold with pore diameters ranging from 2 to 100 nm). These experiments are aimed at an exploration of the rheology of...
Understanding the evolution of a hydrate-crusted gas capsule during its depressurization is critical to elucidating the fate of methane bubbles escaping from seafloor seeps, a process that controls the impact of seafloor methane leakage on ocean biogeochemistry. While the physics of rising bubbles in a water column has been studied extensively, the process is poorly understood when a hydrate...
Sodium chloride crystallization is a key factor in many industrial and geological processes such as for deicing salts, in oil well drilling and CO2 sequestration, in the erosion of rocks, monuments and for the sodification of soils. Generally, salt crystallization in confined space, as encountered in porous media, can significantly change the porosity and permeability, and as such restrict...
The surface chemistry discrepancy between microchips and real rocks/soils restricts the full application of microfluidics technology to subsurface energy and environmental research. Here, we creatively rebuild rock/soil surface chemistries in microchips by forming mineral coatings with an advanced coating technique - layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly technology.[1] The outcome of this work is a...
Micro-models are microfluidic devices used to study the transport of fluids in porous media domains. Porous media relevant to subsurface engineering and reservoir applications are 3D in nature. In order to observe and measure the transport and behavior of nano-particles through such media, it is necessary to preserve the 3D characteristics of the relevant geometry and flow while facilitating...
