Induced-Charge Electrokinetic Phenomena: Theory and Microfluidic Applications

Abstract

We give a general, physical description of “induced-charge electro-osmosis” (ICEO), the nonlinear electrokinetic slip at a polarizable surface, in the context of some new techniques for microfluidic pumping and mixing. ICEO generalizes “ac electro-osmosis” at microelectrode arrays to various dielectric and conducting structures in weak dc or ac electric fields. The basic effect produces microvortices to enhance mixing in microfluidic devices, while various broken symmetries—controlled potential, irregular shape, nonuniform surface properties, and field gradients—can be exploited to produce streaming flows. Although we emphasize the qualitative picture of ICEO, we also briefly describe the mathematical theory (for thin double layers and weak fields) and apply it to a metal cylinder with a dielectric coating in a suddenly applied dc field.