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Joule heating effects on electroosmotic entry flow
Author(s) -
Prabhakaran Rama Aravind,
Zhou Yilong,
Patel Saurin,
Kale Akshay,
Song Yongxin,
Hu Guoqing,
Xuan Xiangchun
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/elps.201600296
Subject(s) - microchannel , joule heating , electrokinetic phenomena , microfluidics , electro osmosis , mechanics , flow (mathematics) , current (fluid) , work (physics) , fluid dynamics , volumetric flow rate , materials science , voltage , chemistry , thermodynamics , nanotechnology , electrophoresis , chromatography , electrical engineering , composite material , physics , engineering
Electroosmotic flow is the transport method of choice in microfluidic devices over traditional pressure‐driven flow. To date, however, studies on electroosmotic flow have been almost entirely limited to inside microchannels. This work presents the first experimental study of Joule heating effects on electroosmotic fluid entry from the inlet reservoir (i.e., the well that supplies fluids and samples) to the microchannel in a polymer‐based microfluidic chip. Electrothermal fluid circulations are observed at the reservoir‐microchannel junction, which grow in size and strength with the increasing alternating current to direct current voltage ratio. Moreover, a 2D depth‐averaged numerical model is developed to understand the effects of Joule heating on fluid temperature and flow fields in electrokinetic microfluidic chips. This model overcomes the problems encountered in previous unrealistic 2D and costly 3D models, and is able to predict the observed electroosmotic entry flow patterns with a good agreement.