Advection-diffusion coupling can enhance particle and solute dispersion by orders of magnitude as compared to pure diffusion, with a steady state being reached for confined flow regions such as a nanopore or blood vessel. Here, by using evanescent wave microscopy, we measure for the first time the full dynamics of Taylor dispersion, highlighting the crucial role of the initial concentration profile. We make time-dependent, nanometrically resolved particle dispersion measurements varying nanoparticle size, velocity gradient, and viscosity in submicrometric near-surface flows. Such resolution permits a measure of the full dynamical approach and crossover into the steady state, revealing a family of master curves. Remarkably, our results show that the dynamics depend sensitively on the initial spatial distribution of the nanoparticles. These observations are in quantitative agreement with existing analytical models and numerical simulations performed herein. We anticipate that our study will be a first step toward observing and modelling more complex situations at the nanoscale, such as target finding and chemical reactions in nanoconfined flows, dynamical adsorption and capture problems, as well as nanoscale drug delivery systems.

• Received 18 December 2020
• Accepted 7 June 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.6.064201