title: Electroosmotic flow analysis of a branched U-turn nanofluidic device.
abstract: In this paper, we present the analysis of electroosmotic flow in a branched -turn nanofluidic device, which we developed for detection and sorting of single molecules. The device, where the channel depth is only 150 nm, is designed to optically detect fluorescence from a volume as small as 270 attolitres (al) with a common wide-field fluorescent setup. We use distilled water as the liquid, in which we dilute 110 nm fluorescent beads employed as tracer-particles. Quantitative imaging is used to characterize the pathlines and velocity distribution of the electroosmotic flow in the device. Due to the device's complex geometry, the electroosmotic flow cannot be solved analytically. Therefore we use numerical flow simulation to model our device. Our results show that the deviation between measured and simulated data can be explained by the measured Brownian motion of the tracer-particles, which was not incorporated in the simulation.
authors.affiliation: Quantitative Imaging Group, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ, Delft, The Netherlands. g.o.f.parikesit@tnw.tudelft.nl
authors.forename: Gea O F
authors.initials: GO
authors.lastname: Parikesit
authors.forename: Anton P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Markesteijn
authors.forename: Vladimir G
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: Kutchoukov
authors.forename: Oana
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Piciu
authors.forename: Andre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bossche
authors.forename: Jerry
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Westerweel
authors.forename: Yuval
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Garini
authors.forename: Ian T
authors.initials: IT
authors.lastname: Young
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004058:Diffusion; D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000379:methods*; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D044085:Microfluidics; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D015233:Models, Statistical; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D009995:Osmosis; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D055672:Static Electricity; D013499:Surface Properties; D013997:Time Factors