Capillarity-driven flows at the continuum limit

International audienceWe experimentally investigate the dynamics of capillary-driven flows at the nanoscale, using an original platform that combines nanoscale pores (3 nm in diameter) and microfluidic features. In particular, we show that drying involves a fine coupling between thermodynamics and fluid mechanics that can be used to generate precisely controlled nanoflows driven by extreme stresses-up to 100 MPa of tension. We exploit these tunable flows to provide quantitative tests of continuum theories (e.g. Kelvin-Laplace equation and Poiseuille flow) across an unprecedented range and we isolate the breakdown of continuum as a negative slip length of molecular dimension. Our results show a coherent picture across multiple experiments including drying-induced permeation flows, imbibition and poroelastic transients