Measurement of temperature-dependent diffusion coefficients using a confocal Raman microscope with microfluidic chips considering laser-induced heating effect

Conventional methods for measuring diffusion coefficients (D) are complex and time consuming. This study presents a method for the continuous measurement of temperature-dependent diffusion coefficients using a confocal Raman microscope with microfluidic chips. Concentration information was collected by a Raman microscope to extract D values. An isothermal diffusion process at various temperatures was ensured by coupling the silicon-based microfluidic chip with an isothermal plate. In the simple silicon/glass chip, the heating effect induced by a Raman laser was observed to contribute to abnormally high D values. To eliminate the heating effect, a 200 nm-thick aluminum (Al) reflection film was used to coat the channel bottom. The Al film substantially reduced absorption of laser power, thus ensuring precise D values in excellent agreement with literature data. Other potential methods to eliminate the heating effect were also evaluated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and were found impractical for implementation. Consequently, this method for the continuous measurement of temperature-dependent diffusion coefficients is proven to be accurate, efficient, and reliable.