Active Microfluidic Micromixer Design using Ionic Polymer-Metal Composites

Abstract

Besides the advantages of Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) for biomedical applications, there are some drawbacks in their performance, which can be enhanced. One of those critical drawbacks is "back relaxation" (BR). If we apply a step voltage to IPMC, it will bend in the anode direction. Afterward, there is an unwanted and relatively slow counterbending toward the cathode side. There are some disadvantages in the current BR control methods of IPMC actuators that prevent them from being used in real applications. This paper presents a new non-feedback method for eliminating the BR effect of nonpatterned IPMCs by using a relatively high-frequency disturbance and proving it by theoretical and experimental explanations. The results show that the proposed method, needless to have any pattern on the electrodes of the IPMCs, can significantly eliminate the BR effect. Unlike the patterned IPMCs, no reduction will occur in the bending amplitude of IPMC, and even we can see the increased bending amplitude.

Passively addressed robotic morphing surface (PARMS) based on machine learning

“…1A). The five-layered architecture exhibits top-to-bottom symmetry, comprising a central porous polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) layer, flanked by conductive polypyrrole (PPy) electrodes at the topmost and bottommost layers (51). The middle separator (porous PVDF) is infiltrated with an electrolyte solution composed of lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (Li + TFSI − ) in propylene carbonate (PC).…”

Paper-Based Microfluidics Perform Mixing Effects by Utilizing Planar Constricted–Expanded Structures to Enhance Chaotic Advection

“…Such forces facilitate effective mixing and are easy to manipulate; nevertheless, active micromixers suffer from some drawbacks, such as the required additional components that raise fabrication costs, the need for large spaces, and difficult integrability. It is worth mentioning that some newly active micromixers, which had low costs and were simple to fabricate, have been successfully developed to perform effective mixing [5][6][7]. On the contrary, passive mixers mainly rely on the changes in channel geometries instead of employing external forces.…”