Observing liquid flow in nanotubes by 4D electron microscopy

Abstract

Watching lead flow at the nanoscale Microfluidic devices have recently become useful in commercial chemical synthesis. But what about fluid dynamics at the nanometer scale? Lorenz and Zewail used an electron microscope with nanosecond time resolution to capture images of molten lead flowing through a nanotube. They flash-melted the metal with a laser pulse to begin their flow measurements at a precise time point. The experiments offered insights into viscous friction as well as heat-transfer dynamics in a channel one-thousandth as wide as a strand of hair. Science , this issue p. 1496