Asymmetrical Induced Charge Electroosmotic Flow on a Herringbone Floating Electrode and Its Application in a Micromixer

Abstract

Enhancing mixing is of significant importance in microfluidic devices characterized by laminar flows and low Reynolds numbers. An asymmetrical induced charge electroosmotic (ICEO) vortex pair generated on the herringbone floating electrode can disturb the interface of two-phase fluids and deliver the fluid transversely, which could be exploited to accomplish fluid mixing between two neighbouring fluids in a microscale system. Herein we present a micromixer based on an asymmetrical ICEO flow induced above the herringbone floating electrode array surface. We investigate the average transverse ICEO slip velocity on the Ridge/Vee/herringbone floating electrode and find that the microvortex generated on the herringbone electrode surface has good potential for mixing the miscible liquids in microfluidic systems. In addition, we explore the effect of applied frequencies and bulk conductivity on the slip velocity above the herringbone floating electrode surface. The high dependence of mixing performance on the floating electrode pair numbers is analysed simultaneously. Finally, we investigate systematically voltage intensity, applied frequencies, inlet fluid velocity and liquid conductivity on the mixing performance of the proposed device. The microfluidic micromixer put forward herein offers great opportunity for fluid mixing in the field of micro total analysis systems.

Editorial for the Special Issue on AC Electrokinetics in Microfluidic Devices

“…Hu et al [1] reported a numerical study of asymmetrical ICEO flows on a herringbone floating electrode and developed a novel micromixer. Miloh [2] theoretically analyzed the possibility of using ICEO and DEP for controlling the location of quantum dots near an ellipsoidal nano-antenna.…”