Abstract—Liquid flows driven by electric force is known as electrohydrodynamics (EHD). EHD flows are expected to be applied to micropumps, microactuators, and mixing devices. However, it is known that conventional EHD flows require at least tens of volts of the applied voltage. In this study, a novel device is developed to generate an EHD flow under a constant current condition with a few voltages. An ion-exchange membrane that has a small pore is set in a reservoir to separate the flow path of anion and cation. The reservoir is filled with NaOH aqueous solution and a constant electric current is applied across the membrane. When the cross sectional area of the ion-exchange membrane is 200 times larger than that of the pore, EHD flows observed in the pore become faster than those in previous studies. The maximum value of the flow velocity reaches 3 mm/s by applying a constant current of 0.8 mA.
Index Terms—Electrohydrodynamics, ion exchange membrane, microfluidics, visualization.
Ayako Yano, Kentaro Doi, and Satoyuki Kawano are with the Department of Mechanical Science and Bioengineering, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan (e-mail: kawano@me.es.osaka-u.ac.jp).
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Cite: Ayako Yano, Kentaro Doi, and Satoyuki Kawano, "Observation of Electrohydrodynamic Flow through a Pore in Ion-Exchange Membrane," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 254-257, 2015.
