Flow batteries for microfluidic networks: configuring an electroosmotic pump for nonterminal positions.

A micropump provides flow and pressure for a lab-on-chip device, just as a battery supplies current and voltage for an electronic system. Numerous micropumps have been developed, but none is as versatile as a battery. One cannot easily insert a micropump into a nonterminal position of a fluidic line without affecting the rest of the fluidic system, and one cannot simply connect several micropumps in series to enhance the pressure output, etc. In this work we develop a flow battery (or pressure power supply) to address this issue. A flow battery consists of a +EOP (in which the liquid flows in the same direction as the field gradient) and a -EOP (in which the liquid flows opposite to the electric field gradient), and the outlet of the +EOP is directly connected to the inlet of the -EOP. An external high voltage is applied to this outlet-inlet joint via a short gel-filled capillary that allows ions but not bulk liquid flow, while the +EOP's inlet and the -EOP's outlet (the flow battery's inlet and outlet) are grounded. This flow battery can be deployed anywhere in a fluidic network without electrically affecting the rest of the system. Several flow batteries can be connected in series to enhance the pressure output to drive HPLC separations. In a fluidic system powered by flow batteries, a hydraulic equivalent of Ohm's law can be applied to analyze system pressures and flow rates.