AC field induced-charge electroosmosis over leaky dielectric blocks embedded in a microchannel.

An effective electrical boundary condition is formulated to describe AC field-driven induced-charge electrokinetic (ICEK) phenomena at the interface between a liquid and a leaky dielectric solid. Since most materials in reality possess finite dielectric and conductive properties, i.e. leaky dielectric, the present boundary condition can be used to describe the induced zeta potential on a leaky dielectric surface with consideration of both bond charges (due to polarization) and free charges (due to conduction). Two well-known limiting cases, i.e. the perfectly dielectric and the perfectly conducting wall boundary conditions can be recovered from the present formulation. Utilizing the derived boundary condition, we obtain analytical solutions in closed form for the AC field-driven induced-charge electroosmosis (ICEO) over two symmetric leaky dielectric blocks embedded in the walls of an infinitely long microchannel. Two important factors for the induced zeta potential are identified to respectively account for the polarization charges and the free charges, and their effects on AC field-driven ICEO oscillating flow patterns are analyzed. It is found that the flow patterns exhibit two counter-rotating vortices, which can be deformed, relocated, eliminated and even reverse their rotating directions. It is very promising that such temporary evolution of flow patterns can possibly induce chaotic advection which can enhance microfluidic mixing.