Hydrodynamic behavior at the vicinity of a confining wall is closely related to the friction properties of the liquid/solid interface. Here we consider, using molecular dynamics simulations, the electric contribution to friction for charged surfaces, and the induced modification of the hydrodynamic boundary condition at the confining boundary. The consequences of liquid slippage for electrokine...

A high-pressure electro-osmotic (EO) micro-pump fabricated by a sol–gel process is shown to be potentially effective as a fluid-driving unit on chip-scale analytical systems. A silica monolithic matrix with a morphology of micron-scaled through pores was synthesized within the 100 m inner diameter (i.d.) fused-silica capillary of the micro-pump. The monolith bonds directly with the capillary wa...

Nonlinear electro-osmotic behaviour of dilute non-adsorbing polymer solutions with low salinity is investigated using Brownian dynamics simulations and a kinetic theory. In the Brownian simulations, the hydrodynamic interaction between the polymers and a no-slip wall is considered using the Rotne-Prager approximation of the Blake tensor. In a plug flow under a sufficiently strong applied electr...

A hydrophilic, positively charged, durable coating has been developed for capillary electrophoresis of macromolecules. Polyethyleneimine is adsorbed to the inner wall of fused silica capillaries and the adsorbed coating cross-linked into a stable layer. Capillaries of polyethyleneimine-coated silica gave unique separations owing to the reversal of electro-osmotic flow caused by the positively c...

With asymptotic and numerical analyses, we systematically study the influence of slip length and access Ohmic resistance (due to pore-end field focusing and concentration polarization) on the energy conversion efficiency of pressure-driven electrolyte flow through a charged nanopore. Hydrodynamic slip reduces the percent of energy dissipated by viscous dissipation but, through electro-osmotic c...

The electro-osmotic flow driven by a screen pump, composed of a line array of evenly spaced identical rectangular solid blocks, is investigated under the Debye-Hückel approximation. The geometry of the screen pump is determined by the spacing and aspect ratio of the solid blocks. A constant surface zeta potential is assumed on the block surface. The method of eigenfunction series expansion is a...

Electro-osmotic consolidation is an attractive soil improvement technique for soft clay. A review of research and practical applications of electro-osmosis was performed. The achievements and major bottleneck of the current technique were briefly discussed, and the potential areas for scientific research and engineering application were proposed. A laboratory testing facility was developed for ...

Electro-osmosis is the flow produced by the action of an electric field on a fluid with a net charge, which is created by the Zeta potential and confined in the Debye layer. This basic phenomenon in the electro-kinetic transport plays an important role in the microfluidic systems being explored today because it can be applied to a variety of MEMS devices. This paper presents global and point-wi...