Experimental demonstration of closing and opening motions of an elastic valve using induced charge electro-osmosis in a flow

Abstract

Pumps and valves are essential in a microfluidic circuit. Here, we report an integrated fluidic circuit consisting of a ratchet-type pump and an elastic valve using induced charge electro-osmosis (ICEO), and experimentally demonstrate closing and opening motions of the ICEO elastic valve using an Au-coated plastic plate-like film in a channel flow generated by the ratchet-type ICEO pump. In particular, we experimentally show that the ICEO pump can generate a net circular flow of the order of ~ 0.5 mm/s in a circular channel and the ICEO valve can close the net circular flow within ~ 1 s. We believe that our prototype ICEO system will play an important role in microfluidics in the future.