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Published on: February 5, 2017
Non-vanishing ponderomotive AC electrophoretic effect for particle trapping
Weihua Guan1, Jae Hyun Park, Predrag S Krstić
1Department of Electrical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
None:
We present here a study on overlooked aspects of alternating current (AC) electrokinetics-AC electrophoretic (ACEP) phenomena. The dynamics of a particle with both polarizability and net charges in a non-uniform AC electric trapping field is investigated. It is found that either electrophoretic (EP) or dielectrophoretic (DEP) effects can dominate the trapping dynamics, depending on experimental conditions. A dimensionless parameter γ is developed to predict the relative strength of EP and DEP effects in a quadrupole AC field. An ACEP trap is feasible for charged particles in 'salt-free' or low salt concentration solutions. In contrast to DEP traps, an ACEP trap favors the downscaling of the particle size.
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