Recent advancements in induced-charge electrokinetic micromixing

Abstract

Lab on a chip (LOC) and micro-total analysis system (μ-TAS) are tiny analytical devices that are used in various miniature scale labs for many biological and chemical applications. Micromixer plays a dynamic role in rapid and homogeneous mixing of fluid species for many applications such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, DNA hybridization, drug discovery, analysis of disease symptoms, cell lysis, biological screening, enzyme assays, and protein folding. For better mixing in microfluidic devices, active and passive micromixer have been used. Passive micromixer is less efficient because of no use of external power and mixing is only done by geometrical modification or by placing an obstacle in the microchannel. Whereas active micromixer uses external power to enhance the mixing performance. Compared to different techniques of active micromixer, induced-charge electrokinetic micromixer is more efficient because of their advantages like no movable parts, plug type fluid flow, ease of control, and facile integration with the detection techniques and mixing in very short length and less time. In this literature, performance of induced-charge electrokinetic micromixer in terms of mixing index, mixing length, and mixing time is compared and systematic development and advancement in induced-charge electrokinetic micromixers is reviewed.