论文和技术资料

At the moment of DC activation, charged surfaces begin interacting with the adjoining electrolyte solution. The charges along the surface of that interface slowly attract oppositely charged ionic particles, which eventually gather on or near the surface, creating the Electric Double Layer (EDL). These ionic particles in the EDL have a detractive effect on the strength of the established potential field and thus the potential field decreases over time as more ionic particles gather. This modification and decrease of the field severely hampers any technological applications that use continuous DC potential.

Understanding the model of EDL gets increasingly complicated as more factors are added, and most EDL theories make the assumption that 1) EDL establishes equilibrium quickly and 2) the bulk region of the solution is effectively limitless. In real-world microfluidic applications, neither of these is necessarily true. It is thus the goal of our group to map out a double electrode system in which a dilute electrolyte sample can be modelled before, during, and after the application of an electric potential. We will present fabrication methods and preliminary experimental results, as well as our work on modelling the electric double layer in such situations using COMSOL Multiphysics^® simulation software.