Polydimethylsiloxane has been dominantly employed as the substrate material for microchip capillary electrophoresis. The poor surface chemistry, however, generates inconsistent electroosmotic flow under the electrophoretic condition, limiting its broader applications. In this work, different polyelectrolytes, including polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride, polyvinyl sulfate, and dextran sulfa...

We generate and study electroosmotic shear flow in microchannels. By chemically or electrically modifying the surface potential of the channel walls a shear flow component with controllable velocity gradient can be added to the electroosmotic flow caused by double layer effects at the channel walls. Chemical modification is obtained by treating the channel wall with a cationic polymer. In case ...

A thin layer of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) prepolymer, which is coated on a glass slide, is transferred onto the embossed area surfaces of a patterned substrate. This coated substrate is brought into contact with a flat plate, and the two structures are permanently bonded to form a sealed fluidic system by thermocuring (60 degrees C for 30 min) the prepolymer. The PDMS exists only at the conta...

Analytical solutions of time periodic electroosmotic flows in two-dimensional straight channels are obtained as a function of a nondimensional parameter kappa, which is based on the electric double-layer (EDL) thickness, kinematic viscosity, and frequency of the externally applied electric field. A parametric study as a function of kappa reveals interesting physics, ranging from oscillatory "pl...

In this work, the effect of multivalent ions on electroosmotic flow is investigated for multiple electrolyte components. The cases studied include incorporating Ca2+ and HPO4(2-) and other monovalent ions, such as K+ and H2PO4-, into an aqueous NaCl solution. The governing equations are derived and solved numerically. The boundary conditions for the governing equations are obtained from the ele...

As microfluidic technologies mature, increasingly complex solutions are employed, and accurate methods for the measurement of electroosmotic flow rates are becoming increasingly important. The methodologies of both a direct method and an indirect method of flow rate measurement are presented here. The direct method involves flow visualization using trace amounts of a caged fluorescent dye. The ...

The influence of an external electric field on the electroosmotic flow in the noncoated (bare) fused-silica capillaries and in the fused-silica capillaries with covalent coating of the inner surface by the polymer of a new acrylamido derivative, N-(acryloylaminoethoxy)ethyl-beta-D-glucopyranose, has been tested in the capillary electrophoretic separations of peptide analytes. The effect of magn...

Due to electric field leakage across sharp corners, the irrotational character of Ohmic electroosmotic flow is violated. Instead, we demonstrate experimentally and theoretically evidence of electrolyte depletion and vortex separation in electroosmotic flow around a junction between wide and narrow channels. When the penetration length of the electric field exceeds the width of the narrow channe...

A characterization and optimization of the in vitro transdermal iontophoretic transport of 5-hydroxy-2-(N,N,-di-n-propylamino)tetralin (5-OH-DPAT) is presented. The utility of acetaminophen as a marker of electroosmotic flow was studied as well. The following parameters of iontophoretic transport of 5-OH-DPAT were examined: drug donor concentration, electroosmotic contribution, influence of co-...

Phase-resolved optical Doppler tomography (ODT), an imaging technique based on low coherence interferometry, is presented as a new tool to determine electroosmotic flow (EOF) in microfluidic channel. This is a non-contact technique that not only can image cross-sectional EOF profile but also can determine electroosmotic mobility. The electroosmotic coefficient measured by ODT was verified by co...