电渗流(EOF)是指带电表面在外加垂直电场作用下,液相相对于静止不动的带电表面运动的现象。采用EOF作为驱动力的微流体驱动方式称为电渗驱动。由于电渗驱动是一种致动力直接作用于流体的驱动方式,具有系统结构、控制及操作方式简单、流型呈扁平状、可降低和消除驱动过程中的分散效应等优点,是微流控芯片分析系统中研究和使用最广的驱动和控制技术。
Electroosmotic flow (EOF) is widely used to transport and mix fluids in microfluidic chips. Aiming at the parallel-plate microchannel with surface roughness, governing equations describing the EOF were established and the influence of surface roughness and electrical double layer (EDL) on EOF was investigated by using finite element method (FEM) . The simulation results indicated that, when the EDL thickness was comparable to 0.3 times of the height of surface roughness, the presence of surface roughness could alter EDL near the surface, and reduce the EOF significantly. When the EDL thickness was much smaller or much greater than the height of surface roughness, EOF was less affected by surface roughness. The relationship between the EOF speed in bulk flow region and the relative EDL thickness was "V-shaped".