Experimental and theoretical study of the displacement process between two electrolyte solutions in a microchannel

Displacement of one electrolyte solution by another in a microchannel is required in many biolab chip devices. The objective of this paper is to develop a better understanding of the displacement process between two electrolyte solutions under an applied electric field in a cylindrical microchannel in terms of the traveling distance of the interface between these two electrolyte solutions. In order to develop a general model to predict the location of the interface, two different situations are considered; one model assumes the presence of a sharp interface between the two solutions and the other model considers a mixing zone between the two solutions. Carefully conducted experiments were carried out to obtain the current-time relationship, which is used in the model to predict the location of the interface. In these experiments, deionized ultrafiltered water (DIUF water), 10 mM KCl, 0.1 mM KCl, and 0.1 mM LaCl3 solutions were used as the testing liquids. Polyamide-coated silica capillary tubes of internal diameter 100 mum and length 10 cm were employed in this study. The relationship between traveled distance of the interface and time was predicted by a developed model based on the measured current-time relationship for such a displacement process under a constant applied electric field. The characteristics of the nonlinear change of the traveling distance with the time were also discussed in this paper.