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Impact of temperature and etching methods on surface roughness, topography, and composition of glass micromodels

Shirazi, M ; Sharif University of Technology | 2022

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.2c02908
  3. Publisher: American Chemical Society , 2022
  4. Abstract:
  5. Fluid flow in porous media is affected by surface characteristics such as roughness and topography. In this work, to simulate the surface of natural porous structures in transparent interconnected media like micromodels, various degrees of roughness have been artificially created on flat glass substrates via different methods of laser ablation, cream etching, combination of laser ablation and cream etching, and hydrofluoric acid (HF) etching. The obtained surfaces by each method were characterized in detail via field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX/EDS), and surface profilometry. The impact of high temperature, as often used during the thermal bonding step in micromodel fabrication, on the surface roughness and topography was also investigated. The results show that laser ablation leads to a homogenous distribution of roughness with an average value of 21.7 μm, not affected by temperature during the bonding step. In contrast, the chemical reaction of HF with the glass surface leads to a vast range of roughness values from 8.4 to 31.3 μm, with a heterogeneous distribution, varying with the exposure time. Applying etching cream on a laser-engraved surface reduces the previously created sharp hillocks as a result of a weak chemical reaction with the surface, resulting in a low roughness value of 5.5 μm. No significant changes were observed in the chemical composition of surfaces etched by the abovementioned methods, even in cases where a chemical reaction occurred on the surface, attributed to the water solubility of the reaction products. The novel findings of this study can be used for better controlling the surface characteristics in the fabrication of transparent porous structures to mimic the natural porous media and study the role of surface roughness and topography on fluid flow behavior. © 2022 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved
  6. Keywords:
  7. Atomic force microscopy ; Chemical bonds ; Energy dispersive spectroscopy ; Etching ; Field emission microscopes ; Flow of fluids ; Glass ; Glass substrates ; Hydrofluoric acid ; Laser ablation ; Porosity ; Porous materials ; Scanning electron microscopy ; Surface reactions ; Topography ; Etching method ; Flat glass ; Fluid flow in porous media ; Glass micromodels ; Impact of temperatures ; Lasers ablations ; Micromodels ; Porous structures ; Roughness and topography ; Surface characteristics ; Surface roughness
  8. Source: Energy and Fuels ; Volume 36, Issue 23 , 2022 , Pages 14066-14078 ; 08870624 (ISSN)
  9. URL: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.2c02908