Electrokinetically-Driven Microfluidics and Nanofluidics

Electrokinetics is currently the mechanism of choice for fluid actuation and bioparticle manipulation at microscale and nanoscale dimensions. There has recently been interest in the use of AC electric fields, given the many advantages it offers over DC electrokinetics. Nevertheless, a fundamental understanding of the governing mechanisms underlying the complex and nonlinear physicochemical hydrodynamics associated with these systems is required before practical microfluidic and nanofluidic devices can be engineered. This text aims to provide a comprehensive treatise on both classical equilibrium electrokinetic phenomena as well as the more recent non-equilibrium phenomena associated with both DC and AC electrokinetics in the context of their application to the design of microfluidic and nanofluidic technology. In particular, Leslie Yeo and Hsueh-Chia Chang discuss the linear and nonlinear theories underlying electroosmosis, electrophoresis, and dielectrophoresis pertaining to electrolytes as well as dielectric systems. Interfacial electrokinetic phenomena such as electrospraying, electrospinning, and electrowetting are also discussed.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction and fundamental concepts; 2. Classical equilibrium theory due to surface changes; 3. Electroosmotic transport; 4. Electrophoretic transport and separation; 5. Field-induced dielectric polarization; 6. DC nonlinear electrokinetics due to field-induced double layer polarization; 8. Dielectrophoresis and electrorotation - double layer effects; 9. Electrohydrodynamic atomization, electrospinning and discharge driven vortices.

About the Author :
Dr Hsueh-Chia Chang is Bayer Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Director of the Center for Microfluidics and Medical Diagnostics at the University of Notre Dame. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University, after which he joined the University of California, Santa Barbara as an Assistant Professor and subsequently the University of Houston as an Associate Professor. Dr Chang has received numerous awards, including the National Science Foundation's Presidential Young Investigator's Award, the Sigma Xi Outstanding Research Award at the University of Notre Dame, and the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics Francois N. Frenkiel Award. In 1997, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Dr Chang is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the American Institute of Physics journal Biomicrofluidics and an Associate Editor of the SIAM Journal of Applied Mathematics. He has also served on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos in Applied Sciences and Engineering. Dr Chang's research has culminated in more than 200 journal publications and 12 patents. He is also co-author of Complex Wave Dynamics on Thin Films. Dr Chang has delivered more than 10 keynote lectures and 100 seminars. His former Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers currently hold positions at 15 universities worldwide and several major chemical and pharmaceutical research facilities. Dr Leslie Yeo is currently an Australian Research Fellow and Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Co-Director of the Micro/Nanophysics Research Laboratory at Monash University, Australia. He received his Ph.D. from Imperial College London in 2002, for which he was awarded the Dudley Newitt prize for a computational/theoretical thesis of outstanding merit. Prior to joining Monash University, he was a Mathematical Modeller at Det Norske Veritas UK and a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. Dr Yeo was the recipient of the 2007 Young Tall Poppy Science Award from the Australian Institute for Policity and Science 'in recognition of the achievements of outstanding young researchers in the sciences including physical, biomedical, applied sciences, engineering and technology,' and a finalist in the 2008 Eureka Prize People's Choice Award. His work has been featured widely in the media, for example, on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's science television program Catalyst, the 3RRR radio broadcast Einstein-a-Go-Go, and in various articles in the Economist, the Washington Times, the Age, ABC Science Online, and Discovery Channel Online. Dr Yeo is the author of more than 70 research publications and more than 10 patent applications and is currently the Associate Editor of the American Institute of Physics journal Biomicrofluidics.