A microfluidic rectifier for Newtonian fluids using asymmetric converging–diverging microchannels

Flow rectification for Newtonian fluids remains challenging compared with that for non-Newtonian fluids because the physical properties of Newtonian fluids are independent of the structure of flow channels, and flow rectification can only be achieved through direction-dependent flow scenarios. In this work, we fabricate a microfluidic rectifier for Newtonian fluids using asymmetric converging–diverging microchannels. The highest diodicity measured for the rectifier is 1.77, which is 15%–54% higher than previous microfluidic rectifiers for Newtonian fluids. An expression for the diodicity is developed based on two scaling laws for the flow resistances in the forward and backward directions. Numerical simulations are also performed to confirm the experiments.