Engineering Commons^™

On-Chip Detection Of Gel Transition Temperature Using A Novel Micro-Thermomechanical Method, Tsenguun Byambadorj, Erfan Dashtimoghadam, Mohamadali Malakoutian, Benyamin Davaji, Lobat Tayebi, James E. Richie, Chung-Hoon Lee

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

We present a new thermomechanical method and a platform to measure the phase transition temperature at microscale. A thin film metal sensor on a membrane simultaneously measures both temperature and mechanical strain of the sample during heating and cooling cycles. This thermomechanical principle of operation is described in detail. Physical hydrogel samples are prepared as a disc-shaped gels (200 μm thick and 1 mm diameter) and placed between an on-chip heater and sensor devices. The sol-gel transition temperature of gelatin solution at various concentrations, used as a model physical hydrogel, shows less than 3% deviation from in-depth rheological results. …