Numerical study of a novel induced-charge electrokinetic micro-mixer

A novel micro-mixer based on the induced-charge electrokinetic motion of an electrically conducting particle is proposed and numerically demonstrated in this paper. For most microfluidic applications, it is desired to mix different streams of solutions rapidly in a continuous flow mode. Therefore, in this work, we consider a mixing chamber containing an electrically conducting particle and the mixing chamber is located in the middle of a microchannel. Vortices are generated around the electrically conducting particle in an aqueous solution due to the interaction of the applied electric field and the induced surface charge on the particle. These vortices will enhance significantly the mixing of different solutions around the particle. The effectiveness of mixing the two streams entering the mixing chamber is numerically studied as functions of the applied electric field. Excellent mixing can be achieved in this system under two perpendicularly applied electric fields. The proposed micro-mixer is simple and easy to be fabricated for lab-on-a-chip applications.

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► A novel micro-mixer is developed based on induced-charge electrokinetic (ICEK).
► Produced vortices around the electrically conducting particle enhance the mixing.
► Designed micro-mixer is very efficient and fast.
► This micro-mixer is simple to fabricate for lab-on-a-chip applications.
► Mixing efficiency is studied as a function of applied electric field.