Gate potential control of nanofluidic devices

The effect of an external gate potential control on the nanofluidic nanochannels was experimentally investigated in this work. Like in the field effect transistors (FET) in microelectronics, molecular transport in micro/nanofluidic channels can be controlled by applying external potentials on the wall of the fluidic channel. In nanofluidic devices, this type of control is expected to be more efficient due to its high surface to charge ratio. We focused on a nanofluidic concentrator to study this effect. We could increase or decrease the concentration rate of the device by increasing or decreasing the surface charge potential (-potential) on the walls of the nanochannels. An increased -potential enhances the electrokinetic effects caused by electrical double layer. Which in turn accelerates the creation of a charge polarization region and improves the concentration capabilities of the device. We also have demonstrated concentration polarization effect, caused by pressure-driven flow in the nanofluidic channel, and showed that this phenomena can also be modulated by changing the gate potential of the nanofluidic devices. The gate potential effect opens the door for closed-loop real-time control of nanofluidic concentrators.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Le Coguic, Arnaud

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jongyoon Han.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33850

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33850