A cavitation-on-a-chip device with a multiple microchannel configuration

Hydrodynamic cavitation is a major phase change phenomena that can occur with a sudden decrease in the local static pressure within a fluid. The emergence of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and high-speed microfluidic devices have attracted considerable attention with implementations in many fields including cavitation applications. In a new study now on Nature: Microsystems and Nanoengineering, Farzad Rokhsar Talabazar and colleagues in Istanbul Turkey, Sweden and Switzerland proposed a new generation of cavitation-on-a-chip devices with eight parallel structured microchannels. The team used water and a poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) microbubble suspension as the working fluids in the device. The features of the next-generation cavitation-on-a-chip instrument have applications across microfluidic or organ-on-a-chip devices for integrated drug release and tissue-engineering applications.