Electrokinetics: it's in their genes

摘要

Work carried out in the Soviet Union 30 years ago by the father-and-son team of Stanislav and Andrei Dukhin now has implications in nanotechnology and microfluidics. Because they don't delve into the fundamental theories of electrokinetics very often, few analytical chemists instantly recognize the names of Stanislav Dukhin and his son Andrei. Some may vaguely recollect seeing a dimensionless number, the Dukhin number (Du), in research papers, but that's about it. But analytical chemists freely take advantage of electroosmosis (the electrokinetic flow around stationary surfaces) and electrophoresis (the electrokinetic motion of freely suspended particles), for which the Dukhins helped lay down the theoretical foundations.