Cellular Fluidics—Directing Flow of Liquids and Gases Using Lattices

Architected materials can be used to elicit and direct fluid flow with the ability to control multiphase interfaces [1]. If the characteristic length scale of unit cells comprising a lattice is small (below 1-2 mm), the distribution of a liquid through that lattice is dominated by surface tension effects. Thus, architected porous media can be designed and manufactured to leverage capillary flow and gas-liquid interfaces in three dimensions. In this talk, we discuss design considerations for such materials and illustrate examples of applications, such as fabrication of novel electrochemical devices, CO2 absorbers, electrospray ionization, and structured composite materials [2]. *This work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 within the LDRD program 22-ERD-029. LLNL-ABS-810682.<br/><br/>[1] N. A. Dudukovic et al., “Cellular Fluidics”, <i>Nature</i>, <i>595</i>(7865), pp.58-65. (2021)<br/>[2] H. B. Gemeda et al., “Hierarchical Composites Patterned via 3D Printed Cellular Fluidics”, <i>Advanced Materials Technologies, 2400426 </i>(2024)