A novel approach to the uniform distribution of liquid in multi-channel (electrochemical) flow-through cells

Four-channel flow-through electrochemical cell working in thin-layer regime was designed, fabricated and characterized experimentally and in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The new principle of operation allows reproducible splitting of a stream of liquid into multiple flow channels. Systems comprising of 2-, 3-, 4- and 8-channels were tested. The proper function of the cell is given by the ratio of the cross-sections of the fluidic element collecting chamber and the particular flow paths among which the liquid is distributed. Suitable flow rates providing uniform liquid distribution were evaluated and the results were compared to CFD modeling. The flow-through cells designed according to the proposed principle can be simply incorporated in automated routine analysis as only one inlet and one common outlet are required.

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► Novel approach to reliable splitting of the stream of liquid among multiple sensing channels.
► Combination of several channels and a shared output fluidic element-collecting chamber.
► Single inlet and single outlet, complete rejection of cross-talk effects.
► Experimental evaluation of the proposed principle on multi(2,3,4, and 8)-channel arrangements.
► Result verified using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation.