Effect of Curvature of Tip and Convexity of Electrode on Localization of Particles

Abstract

We investigate the effect of curvature of the tip and the convexity of an electrode on the localization of suspended particles under the combined effect of dielectrophoresis and AC electroosmosis through simulations using COMSOL Multiphysics. A systematic analysis of the parameters defining the convexity of the electrode-the radius of the tip and the apex angle shows that suspended particles can be trapped closely to the electrode edges for comparatively larger tip radii and apex angles. This in turn should favour the trapping of polarizable molecules between the electrodes only if the fluid velocities at the vortices are not very strong.

Dependence of Shape and Geometry of Microelectrodes in Manipulating Polarizable Particles like DNA through Electro-kinetic Effects

“…Recently we studied in detail, through simulations how those minute bends of the electrodes and sharpness of the edges could affect the sites of the trapping points as well as its strength 26,27 . The electrode geometry used byus 26 is as shown in Fig. 8.…”