Thermo-osmotic flow around a microparticle in a liquid is characterized by observing and analyzing the distribution of tiny particles, i.e., tracers, near the surface of the microparticle. First, an optical-trapping laser is used to localize the tracer motion along a circular path near the circumference of the microparticle. Then, upon creating an overall temperature gradient in the liquid, the tracers on the circular path, originally uniformly distributed, gather toward the hotter side of the microparticle, indicating a flow along the particle toward the heat. Analyzing the tracer distribution further, it is found that (i) the flow magnitude decreases with the distance from the surface and (ii) changing the surface property of the microparticle results in a change in the flow magnitude. These results show that the observed flow is a thermally induced slip flow along the surface of the microparticle. Then, assuming a simple slip boundary condition for a fluid equation, we evaluate the magnitude of the slip coefficient based on two kinds of experimental data: (i) the thermophoretic velocity of the microparticle and (ii) the thermo-osmotic flow around the microparticle. The results of the two approaches are in quantitative agreement. They are also compared with those of theoretical models for a slip flow in existing studies.

• Received 1 July 2023
• Revised 20 September 2023
• Accepted 18 October 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.20.054061

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Published by the American Physical Society