Sheathless particle focusing in a microfluidic chamber by using the thermoplasmonic Marangoni effect

We experimentally investigated the modes of the Marangoni flow around a microbubble in a 50-mu m-thick water chamber and found a transition flow mode that enables sheathless particle focusing. A temperature gradient was thermoplasmonically induced around the laser spot on a gold nanoisland film, and Marangoni flows were generated around the microbubble to drive submicron particles dispersed in the water. When the laser spot was slightly displaced from the bubble center, the particles were continuously collected by the bubble underneath and leaked in one direction to form a focused particle stream. The generation of the particle-focusing Marangoni flow was attributed to the appropriate balance of the temperature gradient in the perpendicular and horizontal directions of the chamber, which was controlled by the laser spot position against the bubble center. Temporally controlling this flow mode with laser power caused the periodic emission of clustered particles from the bubble underneath. This particle handling method with a thermoplasmonic Marangoni flow can be useful for improving the efficiency of reaction or sensing processes that take place in a microfluidic chamber. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.