From radial to unidirectional water pumping in zeta-potential modulated Nafion nanostructures.

ABSTRACT: Chemically propelled micropumps are promising wireless systems to autonomously drive fluid flows for many applications. However, many of these systems are activated by nocuous chemical fuels, cannot operate at high salt concentrations, or have difficulty for controlling flow directionality. In this work we report on a self-driven polymer micropump fueled by salt which can trigger both radial and unidirectional fluid flows. The micropump is based on the cation-exchanger Nafion, which produces chemical gradients and local electric fields capable to trigger interfacial electroosmotic flows. Unidirectional pumping is predicted by simulations and achieved experimentally by nanostructuring Nafion into microarrays with a fine tune modulation of surrounding surface zeta potentials. Nafion micropum

SUBMITTER: Esplandiu MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9120507 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature