Yousuff Caffiyar Mohammed, Tirth Vineet, Zackria Ansar Babu Irshad Mohamed, Irshad Kashif, Algahtani Ali, Islam Saiful
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, C. Abdul Hakeem College of Engineering and Technology, Melvisharam 632509, India.
Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Khalid University, Abha 61411, Saudi Arabia.
Materials (Basel). 2021 Oct 5;14(19):5819. doi: 10.3390/ma14195819.
In electrode-based microfluidic devices, micro channels having narrow cross sections generate undesirable temperature inside the microfluidic device causing strong thermal distribution (joule heating) that eventually leads to device damage or cell loss. In this work, we investigate the effects of joule heating due to different electrode configuration and found that, electrodes with triangular arrangements produce less heating effect even at applied potential of 30 V, without compromising the performance of the device and separation efficiency. However, certain electrode materials have low thermal gradients but erode the channel quickly thereby affecting the reliability of the device. Our simulation also predicts optimal medium conductivity (10 mS/m with 10 V) for cells to survive inside the channel until they are selectively isolated into the collection outlet. Our investigations will aid the researchers in the designing of efficient and reliable microfluidic devices to overcome joule heating inside the microchannels.
在基于电极的微流控装置中，具有狭窄横截面的微通道会在微流控装置内部产生不良温度，导致强烈的热分布（焦耳热），最终导致装置损坏或细胞损失。在这项工作中，我们研究了不同电极配置引起的焦耳热效应，发现即使在30V的施加电势下，三角形排列的电极产生的热效应也较小，且不会影响装置性能和分离效率。然而，某些电极材料的热梯度较低，但会迅速腐蚀通道，从而影响装置的可靠性。我们的模拟还预测了细胞在通道内生存直至被选择性分离到收集出口所需的最佳介质电导率（10V时为10mS/m）。我们的研究将有助于研究人员设计高效可靠的微流控装置，以克服微通道内的焦耳热。
