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Tunable Aqueous Virtual Micropore

  1. Jae Hyun Park1,
  2. Weihua Guan2,
  3. Mark A. Reed2,3,
  4. Predrag S. Krstić1,*

Article first published online: 23 JAN 2012

DOI: 10.1002/smll.201101739

Issue

Small

Small

Volume 8, Issue 6, pages 907–912, March 26, 2012

Additional Information

How to Cite

Park, J. H., Guan, W., Reed, M. A. and Krstić, P. S. (2012), Tunable Aqueous Virtual Micropore. Small, 8: 907–912. doi: 10.1002/smll.201101739

Author Information

  1. 1

    Physics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, PO Box 2008, Bldg. 6010, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA, Phone: +1-865-574-4701; Fax: +1-865-574-1118

  2. 2

    Department of Electrical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA

  3. 3

    Department of Applied Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA

*Physics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, PO Box 2008, Bldg. 6010, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA, Phone: +1-865-574-4701; Fax: +1-865-574-1118.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 19 MAR 2012
  2. Article first published online: 23 JAN 2012
  3. Manuscript Received: 24 AUG 2011

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Keywords:

  • aqueous virtual pores;
  • electrophoresis;
  • modeling;
  • microfluidics;
  • molecular devices

Abstract

A charged microparticle can be trapped in an aqueous environment by forming a narrow virtual pore—a cylindrical space region in which the particle motion in the radial direction is limited by forces emerging from dynamical interactions of the particle charge and dipole moment with an external radiofrequency quadrupole electric field. If the particle satisfies the trap stability criteria, its mean motion is reduced exponentially with time due to the viscosity of the aqueous environment; thereafter the long-time motion of particle is subject only to random, Brownian fluctuations, whose magnitude, influenced by the electrophoretic and dielectrophoretic effects and added to the particle size, determines the radius of the virtual pore, which is demonstrated by comparison of computer simulations and experiment. The measured size of the virtual nanopore could be utilized to estimate the charge of a trapped micro-object.

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