A bottom-up approach to construct or deconstruct a fluid instability

Abstract Fluid instabilities have been the subject of study for a long time. Despite all the extensive knowledge, they still constitute a serious challenge for many industrial applications. Here, we experimentally consider an interface between two fluids with different viscosities and analyze their relative displacement. We designed the contents of each fluid in such a way that a chemical reaction takes place at the interface and use this reaction to suppress or induce a fingering instability at will. This process describes a road map to control viscous fingering instabilities in more complex systems via interfacial chemical reactions.