Microfluidics Concentration of Sample Solutes Using Joule Heating Effects Under Combined AC and DC Electric Field

Microfluidic concentration is achieved by utilizing Joule heating effect induced temperature gradient focusing (TGF) under a combined AC and DC electric field imposed in a straight microchannel with sudden expansion in cross-section. The introduction of AC electric field component services dual functions: one is to produce Joule heating effects for generating temperature gradient, and the other is to suppress electroosmotic flow with high frequencies. Therefore, the required DC voltage for achieving sample concentration with Joule heating induced TGF technique is remarkably reduced. The lower DC voltage can lead to smaller electroosmotic flow (EOF), thereby reducing the backpressure effect due to the finite reservoir size. It was demonstrated that using the proposed new TGF technique with Joule heating effect under a combined AC and DC field, more than 2500-fold concentration enhancement was obtained within 14 minutes in a PDMS/PDMS microdevice, which is an order of magnitude higher than the literature reported concentration enhancement achieved by microfluidic devices utilizing the Joule heating induced TGF technique.