# Enhanced Imbibition in Liquid-Infused Coated Microchannels

## TL;DR

This paper shows that adding a liquid lubricant to microchannel walls can significantly speed up fluid flow without external energy.

## Contribution

The study experimentally demonstrates enhanced imbibition using liquid-infused coatings, reducing imbibition time by up to 50%.

## Key findings

- Infusing channel walls with a liquid lubricant reduces viscous friction and speeds up imbibition.
- Varying lubricant viscosity leads to up to a 50% reduction in imbibition time.
- Results align with theoretical predictions for low-resistance spontaneous imbibition.

## Abstract

Spontaneous capillary imbibition has the potential to
improve the
performance of many micro and nanodevices since it does not require
an external energy source to drive a fluid flow. Despite this advantage,
controlling and reducing the friction exerted by the channel walls,
which limits the speed of the liquid, remains a challenge. Here, we
demonstrate experimentally that infusing the walls of a channel with
a liquid lubricant substantially speeds up the imbibition process
and reduces the overall viscous friction. By varying the viscosity
of the lubricant, we observe a substantial reduction of the imbibition
time of up to 50%. Our experimental results are in good agreement
with previous theoretical predictions, providing a solid framework
to study low-resistance spontaneous imbibition processes.