Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 67, Number 1, July 2004
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 42 - 48 | |
Section | Electromagnetism, optics, acoustics, heat transfer, classical mechanics, and fluid dynamics | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2003-10279-7 | |
Published online | 01 June 2004 |
Silica tubes in chemical gardens: Radius selection and its hydrodynamic origin
1
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida State University Tallahassee, FL 32306-4390, USA
2
Instituut-Lorentz, Universiteit Leiden - Postbus 9506 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
Corresponding author: steinbck@chem.fsu.edu
Received:
17
October
2003
Accepted:
3
May
2004
Chemical gardens consist of hollow silica fibers that form from silicate solution upon seeding with salt crystals or injection of salt solution. We investigate the outer radius of these tubes for steady and oscillatory growth dynamics. The radius increases with increasing injection rates and concentrations of cupric sulfate seed solution. For steady growth, we find that the tube radii are described quantitatively by the Poiseuille-flow characteristics of the buoyant jet of injected solution. The oscillatory regime gives rise to wider tubes and involves the cyclic expansion and detachment of a membrane-bound droplet at the growth point. The droplets' expansion rate equals the applied injection rate indicating that, in this growth regime, the fluid flow is constrained to the interior of the silica structures.
PACS: 47.54.+r – Pattern selection; pattern formation / 47.15.-x – Laminar flows / 82.40.Ck – Pattern formation in reactions with diffusion, flow and heat transfer
© EDP Sciences, 2004
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.