High pressure pump as lab on chip component for micro-fluidic integrated system

We developed a miniaturized pump (8 mm diameter, 1 mm thickness) which generates a flow rate of 2 μL/min at a pressure of 3 MPa. It consists of a stack of several conductive polymer (CP) layers intercalated with electrolyte layers. The stack is housed in a polycarbonate case specially conceived for integration in a lab-on-chip device. The actuator operates at a bias lower than 2V. A maximum strain of 13% is measured in the single CP layer when it expands against atmospheric pressure; this strain is reduced by only a factor of 3 when pressure increases to 15 MPa. Using the stacked actuator, a maximum strain of 5% is measured.