Abstract
Manipulating suspended colloidal particles flowing through a microchannel is of interest in microfluidics and nanotechnology. However, the flow itself can affect the dynamics of these suspended particles via wall-normal “lift” forces. The near-wall dynamics of particles suspended in shear flow and subject to a dc electric field was quantified in combined Poiseuille and EO flow through a ~ 30 μm deep channel. When the two flows are in opposite directions, the particles are attracted to the wall. They then assemble into very high aspect ratio structures, or concentrated streamwise “bands,” above a minimum electric field magnitude, and, it appears, a minimum near-wall shear rate. These bands only exist over the few micrometers next to the wall and are roughly periodic in the cross-stream direction, although there are no external forces along this direction. Experimental observations and dimensional analysis of the time for the first band to form and the number of bands over a field of view of ~ 200 μm are presented for dilute suspensions of polystyrene particles over a range of particle radii, concentrations, and zeta potentials. To our knowledge, there is no theoretical explanation for band assembly, but the results presented here demonstrate that it occurs over a wide range of different particle and flow parameters.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bike SG, Prieve DC (1996) Electrokinetic lift of a sphere moving in slow shear flow parallel to a wall: II. Theory. J Colloid Interface Sci 175:422–434. https://doi.org/10.1006/jcis.1995.1472
Bike SG, Lazarro L, Prieve DC (1995) Electrokinetic lift of a sphere moving in slow shear flow parallel to a wall: I. Experiment. J Colloid Interface Sci 175:411–421. https://doi.org/10.1006/jcis.1995.1471
Bousse L, Cohen C, Nikiforov T, Chow A, Kopf-Sill AR, Dubrow R, Parce JW (2000) Electrokinetically controlled microfluidic analysis systems. Annu Rev Biophys Biomol Struct 29:155–181. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.biophys.29.1.155
Cevheri N, Yoda M (2014a) Using shear and direct current electric fields to manipulate and self-assemble dielectric particles on microchannel walls. J Nanotechnol Eng Med 5:031009. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4029628
Cevheri N, Yoda M (2014b) Electrokinetically driven reversible banding of colloidal particles near the wall. Lab Chip 14:1391–1394. https://doi.org/10.1039/C3LC51341F
Chang HC, Yeo LY (2010) Electrokinetically driven microfluidics and nanofluidics. Cambridge University Press, New York
Kazoe Y, Yoda M (2011) An experimental study of the effect of external electric fields on interfacial dynamics of colloidal particles. Langmuir 27:11481–11488. https://doi.org/10.1021/la202056b
Kim YW, Yoo JY (2009) Axisymmetric flow focusing of particles in a single microchannel. Lab Chip 9:1043–1045. https://doi.org/10.1039/b815286a
Li D, Xuan X (2018) Electrophoretic slip-tuned particle migration in microchannel viscoelastic fluid flows. Phys Rev Fluids 3:074202. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.3.074202
Liang L, Ai Y, Zhu J, Qian S, Xuan X (2010) Wall-induced lateral migration in particle electrophoresis through a rectangular microchannel. J Colloid Interface Sci 347:142–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2010.03.039
Lim CT, Zhang Y (2007) Bead-based microfluidic immunoassays: the next generation. Biosens Bioelectron 22:1197–1204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2006.06.005
Lotito V, Zambelli T (2017) Approaches to self-assembly of colloidal monolayers: a guide for nanotechnologists. Adv Colloid Interface Sci 246:217–274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cis.2017.04.003
Lu X, Hsu JP, Xuan X (2015) Exploiting the wall-induced non-inertial lift in electrokinetic flow for a continuous particle separation by size. Langmuir 31:620–627. https://doi.org/10.1021/la5045464
Ng AHC, Uddayasankar U, Wheeler AR (2010) Immunoassays in microfluidic systems. Anal Bioanal Chem 397:991–1007. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-010-3678-8
Nilsson J, Evander M, Hammarström B, Laurell T (2009) Review of cell and particle trapping in microfluidic systems. Anal Chim Acta 649:141–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2009.07.017
Ohno K, Tachikawa K, Manz A (2008) Microfluidics: applications for analytical purposes in chemistry and biochemistry. Electrophoresis 29:4443–4453. https://doi.org/10.1002/elps.200800121
Probstein RF (2003) Physicochemical hydrodynamics: an introduction. Wiley-Interscience, Hoboken
Ranchon H, Picot V, Bancaud A (2015) Metrology of confined flows using wide field nanoparticle velocimetry. Sci Rep 5:10128. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep10128
Sajeesh P, Sen AK (2014) Particle separation and sorting in microfluidic devices: a review. Microfluid Nanofluid 17:1–52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-013-1291-9
Saville DA (1977) Electrokinetic effects with small particles. Annu Rev Fluid Mech 9:321–337. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.fl.09.010177.001541
Schnitzer O, Yariv E (2012) Macroscale description of electrokinetic flows at large zeta potentials: nonlinear surface conduction. Phys Rev E 86:021503. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.86.021503
Schnitzer O, Yariv E (2016) Streaming-potential phenomena in the thin-Debye-layer limit. Part 3. Shear-induced electroviscous repulsion. J Fluid Mech 786:84–109. https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2015.647
Schnitzer O, Frankel I, Yariv E (2012) Streaming-potential phenomena in the thin-Debye-layer limit. Part 2. Moderate Péclet numbers. J Fluid Mech 704:109–136. https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2012.221
Stauff J (1955) Perlschnurbildung von Emulsionen im elecktrischen Wechselfeld als Relaxationseffekt [English translation: Pearl string formation of emulsions in alternating electric field as relaxation effect]. Kolloid Z 143:162–171. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01519887
Stone HA, Stroock AD, Ajdari A (2004) Engineering flows in small devices: microfluidics toward a lab-on-a-chip. Annu Rev Fluid Mech 36:381–411. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.fluid.36.050802.122124
Tabatabaei SM, van de Ven TGM, Rey AD (2006) Electroviscous sphere–wall interactions. J Colloid Interface Sci 301:291–301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2006.04.047
Trau M, Saville DA, Aksay IA (1996) Field-induced layering of colloidal crystals. Science 272:706–709. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.272.5262.706
Velev OD, Bhatt KH (2006) On-chip micromanipulation and assembly of colloidal particles by electric fields. Soft Matter 2:738–750. https://doi.org/10.1039/B605052B
Williams PS, Lee S, Giddings JC (1994) Characterization of hydrodynamic lift forces by field-flow fractionation. Inertial and near-wall lift forces. Chem Eng Commun 130:143–166. https://doi.org/10.1080/00986449408936272
Wu X, Warszynski P, van de Ven TGM (1996) Electrokinetic lift: observations and comparisons with theories. J Colloid Interface Sci 180:61–69. https://doi.org/10.1006/jcis.1996.0273
Yang SM, Jang SG, Choi DG, Kim S, Yu HK (2006) Nanomachining by colloidal lithography. Small 2:458–475. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.200500390
Yariv E (2006) ‘Force-free’ electrophoresis? Phys Fluids 18:031702. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2185690
Yariv E, Schnitzer O, Frankel I (2011) Streaming-potential phenomena in the thin-Debye-layer limit. Part 1. General theory. J Fluid Mech 685:306–334. https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2011.316
Yuan D, Pan C, Zhang J, Yan S, Zhao Q, Alici G, Li W (2016) Tunable particle focusing in a straight channel with symmetric semicircular obstacle arrays using electrophoresis-modified inertial effects. Micromachines 7:195. https://doi.org/10.3390/mi7110195
Zurita-Gotor M, Bławzdziewicz J, Wajnryb E (2012) Layering instability in a confined suspension flow. Phys Rev Lett 108:068301. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.068301
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Mechanical Sciences Division of the U.S. Army Research Office (contract number W911NF-16-1-0278). We thank Shaurya Prakash at the Ohio State University for his advice and comments, and J. P. Alarie at the University of North Carolina for providing the fused-silica microchannels.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yee, A., Yoda, M. Experimental observations of bands of suspended colloidal particles subject to shear flow and steady electric field. Microfluid Nanofluid 22, 113 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-018-2136-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-018-2136-3