A Miniature Low-voltage Bubble-free Electroosmotic Pump with Low Generation of Heat

This work is to integrate and evaluate a low-voltage electroosmotic pump, which has no gas bubble formation and low heat generation. Funneled reservoirs are prepared to reduce the minor loss of the electroosmotic pump. A track-etched polycarbonate membrane was sandwiched by two identical platinum-coated titanium net electrodes. The electroosmotic pump was driven by applying a rectangular pulse voltage (2.5 V, 5 s, 0.0118 Hz) for about 47 min. No bubbles were observed during the experimental test. The flow rate could reach to 247.90 ~ 267.86 μL/min, when the voltage was applied. And the maximum full-scale error for the measurement of 30 times was 4.98%, while that of any 10 times was ≤3.67%. In addition, the temperature of the electroosmotic pump surface was monitored using a PT 100 thermal resistor. There was only a slight temperature rise (0.3 ~ 0.4 °C) at the surface of the electroosmotic pump, although the measured electric current through the pump during test was about 0.1 mA. All in all, this assembled miniature bubble-free electroosmotic pump has potential applications in engineering and bio-related field, like drug delivery, microfluidic system, and cooling of microelectronic devices.