Steady State and Dynamic Response of Voltage-Operated Membrane Gates

An electrochemical flow cell with Nafion 212, aqueous LiI/I 2 redox solution, and carbon paper electrode was operated as an electro-osmotic gate based on the Electrokinetic Energy Conversion (EKEC) principle. The gate was operated in different modes. ( i) In normal DC pump operation it is shown to follow the predictions from the phenomenological transport equations. ( ii) Furthermore, it was also demonstrated to operate as a normally open, voltage-gated valve for microfluidic purposes. For both pump and valve operations low energy requirements (mW range) were estimated for precise control of small flows ( μ L range). ( iii) Finally, the dynamic response of the pump was investigated by using alternating currents at a range of different frequencies. View Full-Tex