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Electrohydrodynamics around single ion-permselective glass beads fixed in a microfluidic device

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Abstract

This work demonstrates by direct visualization using confocal laser scanning microscopy that the application of electrical fields to a single-fixed, ion-permselective glass bead produces a remarkable complexity in both the coupled mass and charge transport through the bead and the coupled electrokinetics and hydrodynamics in the adjoining bulk electrolyte. The visualization approach enables the acquisition of a wealth of information, forming the basis for a detailed analysis of the underlying effects (e.g., ion-permselectivity, concentration polarization, nonequilibrium electroosmotic slip) and an understanding of electrohydrodynamic phenomena at charge-selective interfaces under more general conditions. The device used for fixing single beads in a microfluidic channel is flexible and allows to investigate the electrohydrodynamics in both transient and stationary regimes under the influence of bead shape, pore size and surface charge density, mobile phase composition, and applied volume forces. This insight is relevant for the design of microfluidic/nanofluidic interconnections and addresses the ionic conductance of discrete nanochannels, as well as nanoporous separation and preconcentration units contained as hybrid configurations, membranes, packed beds, or monoliths in lab-on-a-chip devices.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Bonn, Germany) under grants TA 268/2 and HL 56/1, as well as by the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie (Frankfurt a.M., Germany).

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  1. Ulrich Tallarek

    Present address: Department of Chemistry, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Hans-Meerwein-Strasse, 35032, Marburg, Germany

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  1. Institut für Verfahrenstechnik, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, Universitätsplatz 2, 39106, Magdeburg, Germany

    Steffen Ehlert, Dzmitry Hlushkou & Ulrich Tallarek

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  1. Steffen Ehlert
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Correspondence to Ulrich Tallarek.

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Ehlert, S., Hlushkou, D. & Tallarek, U. Electrohydrodynamics around single ion-permselective glass beads fixed in a microfluidic device. Microfluid Nanofluid 4, 471–487 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-007-0200-5

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