ABSTRACT
There is considerable interest in exploiting the attractive features of electrokinetics to develop microdevices such as pumps, mixers, particle sorters/detectors, and others for miniature applications in the lifescience and homeland-security industries (specific applications include drug design, drug delivery and detection, medical diagnostic devices, high-performance liquid and capillary chromatographs, and explosives detection) and for combinatorial synthesis (such as rapid chemical analyses and high throughput screening) [Koch et al., 2000; Cheng and Kricka, 2001; Stone and Kim, 2001; Trau and Battersby, 2001; Delgado, 2002; Nguyen and Wereley, 2002, Reyes et al., 2002; Stone et al., 2004]. Since electrokinetic liquid or particle motion is imparted by implantable mircoelectrodes, it is far easier to control, direct, and meter than the other microfluidic transportation mechanisms like syringe-displaced, peristaltic, centrifugally driven, and thermal Marangoni-driven flows.
