Abstract
This study focused on the charateristic of magnetic fluids, the viscosity deviation of magnetic fluids due to temperature changes, and fabrication of a 'purely' liquid type microvalve. The viscosity of magnetic fluids decreases sharply during increasing of temperature. The viscosity of magnetic fluids is rated 1,000 cP at the room temperature and 25 cP when the temperature reaches $100^{\circ}C$. Briefly, it is remarkable that the fluid flow can be controlled by the temperature and this characteristic can be adopted to the microfluidics as a microvalve. The fabrication of a liquid type microvalve is more easy than solid state microvalves and which can increase an efficiency of the controlability with respect to the thermo-pneumatic micropump which is studied broadly for many years. When the magnetic fluid used as a sealant for high level sealing, the pressure leakage is less than solid state microvalve. The experimental results show that the pressure drop in microchannel, filled with the magnetic fluid, is significant in the temperature range of $20^{\circ}C{\sim}50^{\circ}C$ and this result explains why the use of magnetic fluids is possible as a microvalve searcher uses this characteristics. Well known thermo-pnumatic.
