title: Wall-induced lateral migration in particle electrophoresis through a rectangular microchannel.
abstract: The fundamental study of particle electrophoresis in microchannels is relevant to many applications. It has long been accepted that particles move parallel to the applied electric field in a straight uniform microchannel. This paper presents the first experimental demonstration of lateral particle migration in electrophoresis through a rectangular microchannel. This wall-induced dielectrophoresis-resembled motion is driven by the electrical force arising from the non-uniform electric field around the particle. It decays rapidly when the particle is away from the channel wall, and vanishes in the center of the channel. The observed result is a focused particle stream flowing along the channel centerline. The measured widths of the particle stream at various electric fields agree reasonably with the predictions of an approximate analytical model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-0921, USA.
authors.forename: Litao
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ai
authors.forename: Junjie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Shizhi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Xiangchun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xuan