The AC electrothermal technique is very promising for biofluid micropumping, due to its ability to pump high conductivity fluids. However, compared to electroosmotic micropumps, a lack of high fluid flow is a disadvantage. In this paper, a novel AC multiple array electrothermal (MAET) micropump, utilizing multiple microelectrode arrays placed on the side-walls of the fluidic channel of the micropump, is introduced. Asymmetric coplanar microelectrodes are placed on all sides of the microfluidic channel, and are actuated in different phases: one, two opposing, two adjacent, three, or all sides at the same time. Micropumps with different combinations of side electrodes and cross sections are numerically investigated in this paper. The effect of the governing parameters with respect to thermal, fluidic, and electrical properties are studied and discussed. To verify the simulations, the AC MAET concept was then fabricated and experimentally tested. The resulted fluid flow achieved by the experiments showed good agreement with the corresponding simulations. The number of side electrode arrays and the actuation patterns were also found to greatly influence the micropump performance. This study shows that the new multiple array electrothermal micropump design can be used in a wide range of applications such as drug delivery and lab-on-a-chip, where high flow rate and high precision micropumping devices for high conductivity fluids are needed.

An important goal of the modern soft matter science is to discover new self-assembly modalities to precisely control the placement of small particles in space. Spatial inhomogeneity of liquid crystals offers the capability to organize colloids in certain regions such as the cores of the topological defects. Here we report two selfassembly modes of nanoparticles in linear defects-disclinations in a lyotropic colloidal cholesteric liquid crystal: a continuous helicoidal thread and a periodic array of discrete beads. The beads form one-dimensional arrays with a periodicity that matches half a pitch of the cholesteric phase. The periodic assembly is governed by the anisotropic surface tension and elasticity at the interface of beads with the liquid crystal. This mode of self-assembly of nanoparticles in disclinations expands our ability to use topological defects in liquid crystals as templates for the organization of nanocolloids. colloidal liquid crystals | nanoparticle self-assembly | liquid crystal droplets | topological defects | anisotropic surface tension T he most extensively studied liquid crystalline phase, the socalled nematic, has been so named after the linear defectdisclinations that appear as flexible threads in optical microscopy textures; "thread" is "ν«μα" in Greek (1, 2). The disclinations represent singularities of the director that describes the local orientation of molecules. As one approaches the "core" of the defect, director deformation becomes so strong that the degree of orientational order varies in space. Disclinations can attract additives, e.g., colloidal particles (3-8) and even small molecules (9, 10). Such an attraction is energetically favored, as the strongly distorted disclination core region is replaced with the additive (4). The unique templating ability of disclinations has stimulated the exploration of their applications, such as the fabrication of optical materials (11), conductive microwires (12), soft magnets (13), and electrooptical devices (5,14,15).Disclinations in nematic liquid crystals are generally onedimensional structures, as the director pattern repeats itself along the line. When an additive is attracted to the disclination core, two possible morphologies are expected: (i) continuous thread-like assembly, or (ii) a linear array of discrete beads. The disclination-templated assemblies reported so far had a threadlike shape, as observed for polymers in the so-called blue phases (15) and for molecular amphiphiles at the cores of nematic disclinations (9, 10).Here, we report the templating behavior of disclinations in the chiral version of the nematic liquid crystal, the so-called cholesteric (Ch) phase. The local directorn in this phase undergoes helicoid twisting around a helical axisv while being perpendicular to this axis (1, 2). Continuous twist leads to a pseudolayered structure, with a well-defined pitch but no modulation of density. Experiments were performed for spherical Ch droplets, in which disclinations correspond to the equilibrium state, thus ensuring...

The electrothermal effect has been investigated extensively in microfluidics since the 1990s and has been suggested as a promising technique for fluid manipulations in lab-on-a-chip devices. The purpose of this article is to provide a timely overview of the previous works conducted in the AC electrothermal field to provide a comprehensive reference for researchers new to this field. First, electrokinetic phenomena are briefly introduced to show where the electrothermal effect stands, comparatively, versus other mechanisms. Then, recent advances in the electrothermal field are reviewed from different aspects and categorized to provide a better insight into the current state of the literature. Results and achievements of different studies are compared, and recommendations are made to help researchers weigh their options and decide on proper configuration and parameters.

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and high chemical and bio-activity, [1] NBs find utility in many important fields such as surface physics [2] and chemistry, [3,4] water treatment, [5] surface cleaning, [6] food processing, [7] and nanomedicine. [8] Among these applications, one significant utility of NBs is in clinical diagnostics, [9] where NBs are introduced into blood vessels as ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs), [10] for contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) imaging. [11] Due to their ability to extravasate out of the bloodstream, NBs may also be well-suited for ultrasound molecular imaging. [12] Specifically, NBs show greater promise than microbubbles (MBs) in molecular imaging of diseases, such as cancer imaging. [13] MBs are intravascular contrast agents because of their larger size, while NB can in principle penetrate through blood vessels to target cells directly, owing to their smaller size and ability to extravasate in tissues due to the enhanced permeability retention (EPR) effect. [14][15][16] The ability to produce monodisperse NBs for drug delivery may achieve significantly improved dose precision. [17] Therapeutic agents can be loaded on, or conjugated to, the surfaces of NBs, and released via ultrasound-induced cavitation. The size

Symmetric T junctions have been used widely in microfluidics to generate equal-sized microdroplets, which are applicable in drug delivery systems. A newly proposed method for generating unequal-sized microdroplets at a T junction is investigated theoretically and experimentally. Asymmetric T junctions with branches of identical lengths and different cross sections are utilized for this aim. An equation for the critical breakup of droplets at asymmetric T junctions and one for determining the breakup point of droplets are developed. A good agreement was observed between the theories (present and previous) and the experiments.

Biological research and many cell-based therapies rely on the successful delivery of cargo materials into cells. Intracellular delivery in an in vitro setting refers to a variety of physical and...

Transport and mixing of minute amounts of biological fluids are significantly important in lab-on-a-chip devices. It has been shown that the electrothermal technique is a suitable candidate for applications involving high-conductivity biofluids, such as blood, saliva, and urine. Here, we introduce a double-array AC electrothermal (ACET) device consisting of two opposing microelectrode arrays, which can be used for simultaneous mixing and pumping. First, in a 2D simulation, an optimum electrode-pair configuration capable of achieving fast transverse mixing at a microfluidic channel cross-section is identified by comparing different electrode geometries. The results show that by adjusting the applied voltage pattern and position of the asymmetrical microelectrodes in the two arrays, due to the resultant circular flow streamlines, the time it takes for the analytes to be convected across the channel cross-section is reduced by 95% compared to a diffusion-only-based transport regime, and by 80% compared to a conventional two-layer ACET device. Using a 3D simulation, the fluid transport (pumping and mixing) capabilities of such an electrode pair placed at different angles longitudinally relative to the channel was studied. It was found that an asymmetrical electrode configuration placed at an angle in the range of 30 ° ≤ θ ≤ 45 ° can significantly increase transversal mixing efficiency while generating strong longitudinal net flow. These findings are of interest for lab-on-a-chip applications, especially for biosensors and immunoassays, where mixing analyte solutions while simultaneously moving them through a microchannel can greatly enhance the sensing efficiency.