Keerthana Mohan has succesfully defended her PhD thesis entieled “Mastering thermocavitation microjets”. The PhD defense took place in the Waaier building at the University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands.

The work of Dr. Mohan explored methods for controlling thermocavitation-driven microjets to enable their use in needle-free jet injection devices (NFJIs). Thermocavitation involves localised explosive boiling of liquid contained in a microfluidic channel caused by continuous-wave (CW) laser absorption. This is followed by the subsequent formation and expansion of a vapour bubble producing a liquid microjet.

The experiments performed in her thesis examined and controlled key jetting characteristics, such as diameter, velocity, trajectory, breakup time, and droplet size. This was controlled through adjustments to system parameters such as the liquid filling level and laser energy, modifying liquid properties through additives, and by tuning the channel geometry and wall wettability.

The full thesis is available here: KEERTHANAMOHAN_PhD_THESIS_Digital.pdf