Non-equilibrium electrokinetic micro/nano fluidic mixer with spatially controlled self-assembled nanoparticle networks

This paper reports an active micromixer which utilizes vortex generation due to non-equilibrium electrokinetics near the geometrically controlled in situ self-assembled nanoparticles. The large interfacing area where the possible vortices are created can be realized, because nano-interstices between these assembled nanoparticles have a role as the collective three-dimensional nanochannel networks. We investigate the variation of mixing performance by changing the size of the nanoparticles. Moreover, we achieve shorter mixing time and mixing length as compared to conventional silicon based nanochannels.