Modulation of heterogeneous surface charge and flow pattern in electrically gated converging-diverging nanochannel

Abstract

The present study aims at utilizing field effect phenomenon to induce heterogeneous surface charge and consequently changing the fluid flow in a solid state nanochannel with converging-diverging periodicity. It is shown that the proposed geometry causes non-uniform radial field adjacent to channel walls which is stronger around the diverging section and weaker next to converging part of the wall. The later generates heterogeneous surface charge at channel walls depending on the applied gate potential i.e. applying low gate potential enables effective modulation of surface charge with the same polarity of the intrinsic charge at channel walls, while moderate gate potential causes charge inversion in diverging sections of the channel and generates reverse flow and thus results in fluid flow circulation. The potential application of flow circulation for trapping and rejection of particles is also demonstrated.