Current characteristic signals of aqueous solution transferring through microfluidic channel under non-continuous DC electric field

The surface effect is becoming apparently significant as the miniaturization of fluidic devices. In the micro/nanochannel fluidics, the electrode surface effects have the same important influence on the current signals as the channel surface effects. In this paper, when aqueous solution are driven with non-continuous DC electric field force, the characteristics of current signals of the fluid transferring through microfluidic channel are systematically studied. Six modes of current signal are summarized, and some new significant phenomena are found, e.g. there exists a critical voltage at which the steady current value equals to zero; the absolute value of the steady current decreases at first, however, it increases with the external voltage greater than the critical voltage as the electrode area ratio of cathode and anode is 10 and 20; the critical voltage increases with the enhancing of electrode area ratio of cathode and anode and solution pH, while it decreases with the raising of ion concentration. Finally, the microscopic mechanism of the electrode surface charge effects is discussed preliminarily. The rules will be helpful for detecting and manipulating single biomolecules in the micro/nanofluidic chips and biosensors.