A soft-lithographed chaotic electrokinetic micromixer for efficient chemical reactions in lab-on-chips

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel soft-lithographed chaotic electrokinetic micromixer that efficiently mixes liquids in lab-on-chip devices using chaotic advection via AC electroosmosis, with promising low-voltage operation and high integration potential.

Contribution

It introduces a new chaotic micromixer design based on Linked Twisted Map implementation, fabricated with standard lithography, enhancing integration and efficiency in microfluidic systems.

Findings

Effective mixing demonstrated at 10-100 kHz frequencies

Low voltage operation (~15-20 V) achieved

Device is highly integrable with lab-on-chip platforms

Abstract

Mixing is one of the basic functions which automated lab-on-chips require for the effective management of liquid samples. In this paper we report on the working principle, design, fabrication and experimental characterization of a soft-lithographed micromixer for microfluidic applications. The device effectively mixes two liquids by means of chaotic advection obtained as an implementation of a Linked Twisted Map (LTM). In this sense it is chaotic. The liquids are electrokinetically displaced by generating rolls through AC electroosmosis on co-planar electrodes. The device performance has been tested on dyed DI-water for several voltages, frequencies and flow-rates, displaying good mixing properties in the range of $10 \div 100$kHz, at low peak-to-peak voltages ($\sim15 \div 20$ volts). Low voltage supply, small dimensions and possibility of fabrication via standard lithographic techniques make the device highly integrable in lab-on-a-chip platforms.