Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA.
Electrophoresis. 2013 May;34(9-10):1400-8. doi: 10.1002/elps.201200377. Epub 2013 Apr 11.
This work demonstrates the use of thin film heaters to enhance electrothermal pumping in microfluidic systems. Thin film heating electrothermal pumping is more efficient than Joule heating alone. Numerical simulations of an asymmetric electrode array are performed to demonstrate the advantages of incorporating thin film heaters. This specific simulation shows that thin film heater electrothermal pumping provides approximately two and one-half times more volumetric flow than Joule heating alone for the same input power to both systems. In addition, external heating allows for electrothermal pumping to be applicable to low conductivity media.
本工作展示了在微流控系统中使用薄膜加热器来增强电热泵送的效果。与单纯的焦耳加热相比，薄膜加热电热泵送的效率更高。通过对非对称电极阵列的数值模拟，展示了薄膜加热器的优势。具体的模拟表明，对于两种系统输入相同的功率，薄膜加热器电热泵送的体积流量比单纯的焦耳加热高出约 2.5 倍。此外，外部加热使得电热泵送能够适用于低电导率的介质。
