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Design and modelling of droplet based microfluidic system enabled by electroosmotic micropump

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Abstract

In this work, we have investigated the integration of an electroosmotic micropump allowing to generate droplets in two parallel flow focusing junctions. A novel design of the electroosmotic micropump with low voltage is proposed, acting as an active fluidic control to produce droplets of water-in-oil. Numerical studies are performed both on the micropump and the oil flow rate of the continuous phase. The simulations are conducted in terms of size and frequency of droplets issued from the device. Several ranges of applied voltage were applied to the micropump (2, 3.6, 5, and 10 V) for each oil flow rate value varying from 0.75 to 5.5 µl/min. Contrary to the pneumatic, piezoelectric or mechanical micropump, this integrated electroosmotic micropump is a versatile droplet generator allowing it to be used in microfluidic system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microelelectronic and instrumentation Lab, University of Monastir, Monastir, Tunisia

    Nader Gallah, Nizar Habbachi & Kamel Besbes

  2. Centre for Research on Microelectronic and Nanotechnology, CRMN, Sousse, Tunisia

    Kamel Besbes

Authors
  1. Nader Gallah
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  2. Nizar Habbachi
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  3. Kamel Besbes
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Correspondence to Nader Gallah.

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Gallah, N., Habbachi, N. & Besbes, K. Design and modelling of droplet based microfluidic system enabled by electroosmotic micropump. Microsyst Technol 23, 5781–5787 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-017-3414-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-017-3414-9

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