Electroosmotic pumps with frits synthesized from potassium silicate

Abstract

Electroosmotic pumps employing silica frits synthesized from potassium silicate as a stationary phase show strong electroosmotic flow velocity and resistance to pressure-driven flow. We characterize these pumps and measure an electroosmotic mobility of 2.5×10-8 m2/ V s and hydrodynamic resistance per unit length of 70 ×1017 Pa s/m4 with a standard deviation of less than 2% even when varying the amount of water used in the potassium silicate mixture. Furthermore, we demonstrate the simple integration of these pumps into a proof-of-concept PDMS lab-on-a-chip device fabricated from a 3D-printed template.