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A recent trend is the production of workable microchannel flow cells (MF cells). The nondestructive methods used to assess their reliability are based mainly on output monitoring and do not evaluate internal chemical interactions. We investigate a nondestructive method for evaluating changes in the chemical composition of the inner walls based on evaluation of the extent of alignment of a fluorescent probe in a liquid flowing within MF cells. Two MF cells were built with a 10-microm inner spacing. Their inner walls had four parallel SnO(2) strips, 2.00 mm wide, separated by 0.50-mm-wide glass strips. One cell had strips parallel to the flow and the other perpendicular. Flow-induced intermolecular alignment of rhodamine B in monoethylene glycol was scanned with 28-microm precision by fluorescence depolarization, using polarized-laser-induced fluorescence within induced flows (PLF-FI). No changes of polarization were seen when the flow was stopped. Under flowing conditions, polarization was always 4% lower in the glass region as compared to SnO(2). Glass had a higher solid-liquid interfacial tension (determined by contact angle measurements), thus being more wettable and increasing the drag, which propagates into the liquid flow, decreasing polarization. PLF-FI can thus identify regions with different chemical constitutions.

Interfacial interactions control two processes empirically known to be critical for molecular anchoring in twisted nematic liquid crystal displays technology (TN-LCDs): surface treatment and filling procedure. Static and dynamical interfacial tensions (Gamma(SL)) between liquids and several substrates with similar roughness were observed respectively by contact angle (theta(c)) of sessile drops and by fluorescence depolarization of thin liquid films flowing at high velocity. Gamma(SL) decreased when glass was coated with tin dioxide and increased with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) deposition. Drops were circular for all substrates except rubbed PVA, where they flowed spontaneously along the rubbing direction, reaching an oblong form that had theta(c) parallel and perpendicular to the rubbing direction respectively greater and smaller than theta(c) for non-rubbed PVA. This is attributed to polar group alignment generating an asymmetric Gamma(SL) distribution with nanometric preferential direction, inducing a capillary-like flow. Polarization and anisotropy maps for high-velocity flow parallel to the PVA rubbing direction showed an increase in the net alignment of molecular domains and a widening of the region where it occurred. This is attributed to preferential anchoring in the downstream direction, instead of in several directions, as for non-rubbed PVA. This explains why filling direction is crucial for TN-LCDs homogeneous behavior.