Liquid HeatingHeating

IR image of MEMS heating chip in Hummingbird Scientific Liquid Flow Holder
‹ Liquid Heating
Our liquid heating system is specifically optimized for homogeneous sample heating at moderate temperature requirements. Each chip features its own thin-film heater, which heats the contents of the liquid cell up to the boiling point of your solution. The system’s custom heating-control box and software user interface features closed-loop temperature control and integrated protection against boiling. Hummingbird’s heating chips are specially calibrated for this system in order to ensure optimal capability. The image shows an example of the heated liquid cell membrane under a thermal camera.

 

Featured Research

 

Direct observation of the nanoscale Kirkendall effect

Hollow nanostructures have important applications for use in catalysis, plasmonics, and biomedical research. Typically, hollow nanostructures are synthesized via galvanic replacement reaction (GR). However, the transient mechanism of the formation of hollow structures in nanostructres have not been verified experimentally.  The researchers in this study used Hummingbird Scientific’s Liquid Heating platform to observe the nucleation, growth, and coalescence of voids inside the nanocubes during the GR reaction with Au ions at different temperatures. In the experiment, the nanocube solution was drop-casted onto the heater chips and sealed in the liquid holder using the bottom spacer chips.  The Ag nanocubes were heated to a desired temperature before flowing the solution. The Ag nanocube studied were stable and remained in cuboid shape after heating at ~ 90 degree Celsius during imaging. This study could potentially benefit in the synthesis of other nanostructures.

Galvanic replacement of Ag nanocubes by Au at 23 °C and 90 °C. Image copyright ©2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature
Galvanic replacement of Ag nanocubes by Au at 23 °C and 90 °C. Image copyright ©2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature

 

Reference: Utkur Mirsaidov et al. Direct observation of the nanoscale Kirkendall effect during galvanic replacement reactions. Nature Communications (2017). Abstract