High efficiency micro-bubble generator using carbon nanocoils as heater

This paper reports fabrication and properties of microbubble generator using carbon nanocoils as heater. The carbon nanocoils were dielectrophorestically bridged between microelectrodes in the microstructures. Behavior of the bubble generation was studied in an open DI water circumstance. Compared with traditional metal and polysilicon based microbubble generator, its power consumption was generally 2 orders of magnitude lower, e.g., <; 70μW for ~300μm diameter bubble, indicating high electro-thermal efficiency than ever before. Mechanism underneath the ultra low power consumption is probably due to the nano helical structure of the heating element which leads to the greatly decreased heat loss and will be further investigated.