Rapid AC Electrokinetic Micromixer with Electrically Conductive Sidewalls

We report a quasi T-channel electrokinetics-based micromixer with electrically conductive sidewalls, where the electric field is in the transverse direction of the flow and parallel to the conductivity gradient at the interface between two fluids to be mixed. Mixing results are first compared with another widely studied micromixer configuration, where electrodes are located at the inlet and outlet of the channel with electric field parallel to bulk flow direction but orthogonal to the conductivity gradient at the interface between the two fluids to be mixed. Faster mixing is achieved in the micromixer with conductive sidewalls. Effects of Re numbers, applied AC voltage and frequency, and conductivity ratio of the two fluids to be mixed on mixing results were investigated. The results reveal that the mixing length becomes shorter with low Re number and mixing with increased voltage and decreased frequency. Higher conductivity ratio leads to stronger mixing result. It was also found that, under low conductivity ratio, compared with the case where electrodes are located at the end of the channel, the conductive sidewalls can generate fast mixing at much lower voltage, higher frequency, and lower conductivity ratio. The study of this micromixer could broaden our understanding of electrokinetic phenomena and provide new tools for sample preparation in applications such as organ-on-a-chip where fast mixing is required.