Nanoliter Chemistry

• We are also working on chemistry at nanoliter sample sizes. Here is the sample holder for liquids that is fabricated on the calorimeter from the original wafer.  It is just left un-etched in the potassium hydroxide step.
• We vaporized a number of water droplets from ~1 to ~100 nL, and measured the heat of vaporization. The line on this graph is the bulk heat of vaporization for water, and the points are experimental.

• We can also use these sensors to measure temperature alone. Here we placed a water droplet on a sensor and let it evaporate. In performing the measurement, we did not use enough current to heat the sensor significantly.
• The hope is that we will be able to place a single cell in the sample container and watch the heat it gives off during its normal metabolic processes.