Dynamics of Water Monolayers Confined by Chemically Heterogeneous Surfaces: Observation of Surface-Induced Anisotropic Diffusion.

Water present in confining geometries plays key roles in many systems of scientific and technological relevance. Prominent examples are living cells and nanofluidic devices. Despite its importance, a complete understanding of the dynamics of water in nanoscale confinement remains elusive. In this work, we use molecular dynamics (MD) simulation to investigate the diffusive dynamics of water monolayers confined in chemically heterogeneous silica slit pores. The effect of chemical heterogeneity is systematically investigated through the fraction fSiOH of randomly distributed surface sites that possess hydroxyl functional groups. Partial hydroxylation results in heterogeneous surfaces comprising nanoscale hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions. We find that the in-plane diffusivity of water increases monotonically with fSiOH; at low surface hydroxylation (fSiOH ≤ 50%), slow water dynamics arise due to the formation of icelike structures in the hydrophobic regions, while at fSiOH ≥ 75%, surface-water H-bonds in the hydrophilic regions result in faster dynamics. We show that surface patterning with ordered hydrophobic and hydrophilic "stripes" can be used to induce one-dimensional diffusion, with water diffusing through the slit pore preferentially along the direction of the hydrophilic surface patterns.

Stochastic interactions of two Brownian hard spheres in the presence of depletants.

A quantitative analysis is presented for the stochastic interactions of a pair of Brownian hard spheres in non-adsorbing polymer solutions. The hard spheres are hypothetically trapped by optical tweezers and allowed for random motion near the trapped positions. The investigation focuses on the long-time correlated Brownian motion. The mobility tensor altered by the polymer depletion effect is computed by the boundary integral method, and the corresponding random displacement is determined by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. From our computations it follows that the presence of depletion layers around the hard spheres has a significant effect on the hydrodynamic interactions and particle dynamics as compared to pure solvent and uniform polymer solution cases. The probability distribution functions of random walks of the two interacting hard spheres that are trapped clearly shift due to the polymer depletion effect. The results show that the reduction of the viscosity in the depletion layers around the spheres and the entropic force due to the overlapping of depletion zones have a significant influence on the correlated Brownian interactions.

Dynamic response of micropipettes during piezo-assisted intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

In the intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) process, a piezoelectric actuator is commonly used to assist the piercing of cell membrane. The longitudinal pulses that are performed by the piezo actuator, however, cause undesired lateral vibrations at the drawn tip of the injection micropipette. This mechanism is not well understood, despite its critical role in piezo-assisted cellular microinjection. We provide an analytical model to characterize the micropipette tip vibrations under assumed base excitation arising from the piezoelectric pulses. The resulting dynamic response is determined by using the Duhamel integral method. This study quantifies the effect of fluid damping, embedded mercury, and the apparent cell membrane elasticity. We found that, in practice, a small mercury droplet filled in pipette essentially creates higher shear forces at the membrane-pipette interface. The increased shear due to underdamped eigenmodes is conceived to assist the piercing of the cell membrane.

Geometric characterization of cell membrane of mouse oocytes for ICSI.

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is a broadly utilized assisted reproductive technology. A number of technologies for this procedure have evolved lately, such as the most commonly utilized piezo-assisted ICSI technique (P-ICSI). An important problem with this technique, however, is that it requires a small amount of mercury to stabilize the tip of the penetration micropipette. A completely different and mercury-free injection technology, called the rotationally oscillating drill (Ros-Drill) (RD-ICSI), was recently developed. It uses microprocessor-controlled rotational oscillations of a spiked micropipette after the pipette deforms the membrane to a certain tension level. Inappropriate selection of this initiation instant typically results in cell damage, which ultimately leads to unsuccessful ICSI. During earlier manual clinical tests of Ros-Drill, the technicians' expertise determined this instant in an ad hoc fashion. In this paper, we introduce a computer-vision-based tool to mechanize this process with the objective of maintaining the repeatability and introducing potential automation. Computer images are used for monitoring the membrane deformations and curvature variations as the basis for decision making. The main contribution of this paper is in the specifics of the computer logic to perform the monitoring. These new tools are expected to provide a practicable means for automating the Ros-Drill-assisted ICSI operation.