Forces acting on a particle in a concentration gradient under an externally applied oscillating electric field

摘要

We report a force field on a particle in a concentration (conductivity) gradient under an externally applied oscillating electric field. The conductivity gradient was established through integrated microcapillaries bridging high- and low-conductivity streams in dedicated microchannels. Particles in low-conductivity electrolyte were observed to experience a strong force with the application of an oscillating field and pulled to the microcapillary openings where they were held against the flow. Particle trapping was accompanied by a concurrent electrolyte injection from high- to low-conductivity channel, triggered with the externally applied field and further contributed to the conductivity gradient near the trapping sites. We experimentally evaluated the force dependence on the magnitude and frequency of the excitation field for 10 μm polystyrene particles immersed at various conductivity levels. The experiments suggest that the observed force cannot be simply explained by dielectrophoresis or diffusiophoresis alone and further requires the consideration of a so-called concentration polarization force. This force has been rather recently postulated based on a theoretical treatment and yet to be experimentally validated. Using the theoretical treatment of this force, together with fluidic drag and diffusiophoresis, we correctly predicted trapping trajectories of particles based on a simultaneous solution of Poisson-Nernst-Planck and Stokes equations. The predicted and measured trapping velocities were found in reasonable agreement (within a factor of ＜1.6), suggesting that the consideration of the concentration polarization force is necessary for describing the observed particle behavior.