Experimental Methods in Fabricating Anisotropic Particles for Porous Media Studies

Abstract

The transport of colloidal particles in complex, three-dimensional porous media is involved in a variety of processes such as groundwater remediation, oil recovery, and drug delivery. While many studies characterize the flow of spherical colloidal particles in opaque porous media, not many visualize the flow of non-spherical colloids in transparent media. Here, we present methods to fabricate and recover non-spherical colloids and a platform to compare their transport to spherical colloidal particles by visualizing fluid flow within a transparent, three-dimensional porous medium using confocal microscopy. While most studies focus on the experimental results, our work focuses on troubleshooting and refining the experimental methods so researchers may achieve accurate and replicable results and avoid unnecessary duplication.