Tohoku University · Engineering
Professor Akihide Hibara's research lab specializes in microfluidics and interfacial phenomena, focusing on the design and fabrication of micro- and nanofluidic devices for advanced chemical and physical analysis. The lab develops innovative surface engineering techniques—such as capillarity-driven liquid handling, hydrophobic-hydrophilic patterning, and nanopillar structures—to control multiphase flows and interfacial transport at microscale. Their work spans time-resolved fluorescence measurements, quasi-elastic light scattering for interfacial dynamics, and contactless surface tension measurements of micrometer-scale droplets, enabling precise investigation of mass transfer and reaction processes in confined environments. The lab's research bridges fundamental interfacial science with practical applications in chemical separations, distillation, and microchemical systems.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
We have fabricated nanometer-sized channels, demonstrated a technique for the introduction of liquid into the channels, and carried out time-resolved fluorescence measurements of aqueous solutions. In this study, 330-nm- and 850-nm-sized channels were fabricated on fused-silica substrates by fast atom beam etching and hydrofluoric acid bonding methods. A liquid introduction method utilizing capillary action was demonstrated. The liquid introduction was observed under an optical microscope, and t
A capillarity restricted modification method for microchannel surfaces was developed for gas--liquid microchemical operations in microchips. In this method, a microstructure combining shallow and deep microchannels and the principle of capillarity were utilized for chemical modification of a restricted area of a microchannel. A hydrophobic--hydrophilic patterning in microchannels was prepared as an example for guiding gas and liquid flows along the respective microchannels. Validity of the patte
We demonstrated a liquid/liquid and a gas/liquid two-phase crossing flow in glass microchips. A 250-microm-wide microchannel for aqueous-phase flow was fabricated on a top glass plate. Then, as a way to utilize the surface energy difference for stable phase confluence and separation, a 250-microm-wide microchannel for organic-phase (or gas-phase) flow was fabricated on a bottom glass plate and the wall was chemically modified by octadecylsilane (ODS) group. The top and bottom plates were sealed
Microscopic quasi-elastic laser scattering (muQELS) spectroscopy has been developed for analysis of interfacial phenomena at laminar multiphase microflow in a microchannel. Transport phenomena of a metal chelate through a water/toluene interface were measured, and transient adsorption of the chelate in the initial step of the transport was measured. A water/methanol miscible interface was also measured, and the interfacial free energy of a miscible interface was determined for the first time. Th
Abstract This paper reports a novel distillation method in microchannels. For the gas–liquid separator in the evaporator, hydrophilic–hydrophobic patterned microchannel structure was utilized. In order to control condensation of the vapor, nanopillar structures having a capillary radius of 270 nm were fabricated after the separator. In the nanopillars, vapor pressure is lower than that at a flat liquid surface. An aqueous solution of 9.0 wt % ethanol was used as a model sample, and concentration
We report a contactless surface tension measurement method of micrometer-sized aerosol droplets. In this method, we assume spherical spontaneous resonance of a thermally induced capillary wave. First, an aerosol droplet with a radius ranging from 4.7 to 12.4 μm is trapped by means of a simple single-beam optical trapping configuration, and the frequency shift power spectrum of the light passing the droplet is measured. The spectrum in each case exhibits several peaks in a frequency range of seve
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