Temperature gradient generation and control

Abstract

In today’s microfluidic technology, electrokinetic transport is used to perform many chemical and biological analyses in lab-on-a-chip devices, such as clinical diagnoses, DNA scanning, cell manipulation, cell patterning, and molecular detection. Due to the presence of an electrical potential gradient in electrokinetic transport, Joule heating is a ubiquitous phenomenon which may lead to an increase in the overall temperature and to temperature gradients in the transverse and longitudinal directions inside the channels. These generated temperature gradients and their control are crucial for the performance of the devices.