2) Heat transfer model and experimental validation
Temperature rise due to sonication was simulated using a finite element heat transfer model (see methods) for four sets of pulse length, total power, and vessel size conditions: (1) 10 s, 5.5 W, 1.5 mL, (2) 20 s, 5.5 W, 1.5 mL, (3) 10 s, 12.5 W, 5 mL, (4) 10 s, 1.73W, 1.5 ml tubes. These were then experimentally validated under the same conditions using a thermocouple probe (Fig 3, supplementary figure 9). It is observed that the simulated temperature profile matches well with the experiment (R2 = 0.9947, 0.9989, 0.9926 and 0.9849). This indicates that the model assumptions made (namely complete mixing in the tube) are adequate and that the model can be used to assess published data and to calculate optimized conditions.