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Updated: Mar 25, 2026

Generation and Control of Electrohydrodynamic Flows in Aqueous Electrolyte Solutions
Published on: September 7, 2018
Temperature effects on the electrohydrodynamic and electrokinetic behaviour of ion-selective nanochannels
Jeffery A Wood1, Anne M Benneker, Rob G H Lammertink
1Soft Matter, Fluidics and Interfaces, Mesa+Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, 7500AE Enschede, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
A non-isothermal formulation of the Poisson-Nernst-Planck with Navier-Stokes equations is used to study the influence of heating effects in the form of Joule heating and viscous dissipation and imposed temperature gradients on a microchannel/nanochannel system. The system is solved numerically under various cases in order to determine the influence of temperature-related effects on ion-selectivity, flux and fluid flow profiles, as well as coupling between these phenomena. It is demonstrated that for a larger reservoir system, the effects of Joule heating and viscous dissipation only become relevant for higher salt concentrations and electric field strengths than are compatible with ion-selectivity due to Debye layer overlap. More interestingly, it is shown that using different temperature reservoirs can have a strong influence on ion-selectivity, as well as the induced electrohydrodynamic flows.
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