Lee, W.-N. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2026

Acoustic Modulation of Ion-Solvent Interactions: Microscopic Insights into Acoustoelectric Effect Modelling

The acoustoelectric (AE) effect, in which acoustic waves modulate the electrical properties of a conductive medium, holds significant potential for biomedical imaging. While classic models describe the phenomenon through conductivity modulation, a detailed understanding of its microscopic origins, particularly the role of ion behaviours, remains lacking. This study introduces a novel electrokinetic perspective by investigating how ultrasound modulates ion-solvent interactions, thereby bridging macroscopic AE signals with underlying ion dynamics. Through finite element simulations of a dilute NaCl solution, we demonstrate that acoustic pressure waves induce local variations in ion mobility and diffusion by altering ion hydration shells and solvent viscosity. These changes disrupt the balance among Coulombic, diffusive, and frictional forces on individual ions, leading to the local conductivity modulation. Furthermore, simulations reveal that acoustic perturbation of the electrode-electrolyte interface (EEI) significantly enhances AE signal generation, highlighting the EEIs critical role in AE-related applications. By linking acoustic modulation to fundamental ion-solvent interactions, this work not only provides a foundation for more accurate, microscopically grounded models of the AE effect but also connects AE effect modelling to the active research of solvation dynamics in physical chemistry.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2025

Versatile Vasculature Chips for Ultrasound Localization Microscopy

Ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) has revolutionized microvasculature imaging by surpassing the diffraction limit via microbubbles. ULM demonstrates exceptional potential to resolve micrometer-scale vascular structures in both preclinical and clinical studies. However, its performance evaluation remains challenging primarily due to the lack of reference microvascular phantoms featuring micrometer-scale, hierarchical branches, and realistic vascular structures. Inspired by microfluidic chip techniques, we present an organ-on-a-chip protocol for fabricating agarose-based micro-vessel network phantoms with ground truth. The vasculature pattern offers design versatility, enabling on-demand customization. We experimentally demonstrated the feasibility of the vasculature phantom using two adapted patterns. The first was a leaf pattern, which exhibited intrinsic quasi-two-dimensional venation network with hierarchical and branching channels similar to animal vasculature. The second was a kidney pattern, which was based on a two-dimensional projection of real human vasculature obtained from micro computed tomography. The microbubble solution was perfused into the phantoms by capillary force and gravity. The ULM-reconstructed vasculature maps agreed well with the ground truth. ULM achieved a high sensitivity of 0.97 and 0.95, but a low precision of 0.37 and 0.60, for the leaf and kidney phantom, respectively. The results indicated the capability of ULM to reconstruct vessel structures while making many false positive predictions. The proposed protocol holds significant promise for the development and optimization of ultrasound microvascular imaging techniques.

bioengineering↗