The purpose of this research was to determine the potential effect indigenous ions may have on the effectiveness of electrokinetic remediation of chromium contaminated soils. A synthetic soil matrix was tested in conjunction with four common ion pairs found in soils and ground water. The results of this study indicate that the interaction of the indigenous ions is sufficient to inhibit the effectiveness of the electrokinetic remediation process. The mobility of chromium through the soil was altered in the presence of high concentrations of the indigenous ions. Further study in this area will be required to address the effect of site specific conditions for full-scale electrokinetic remediation of soils.

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The work presented in this dissertation provides a novel technique of manipulation of colloidal entities during membrane filtration based on an AC electrokinetic phenomenon called dielectrophoresis. First, the influence of dielectrophoretic (DEP) forces created on a membrane surface to levitate colloidal particles is studied both theoretically and experimentally. A numerical model based on the convection-diffusion-migration equation is presented to calculate the concentration distribution of colloidal particles in shear flow under the influence of a repulsive DEP force field. The simulation results indicate that particle accumulation on the membrane (or membrane fouling) during filtration can be averted by creating a repulsive DEP force field on the membrane surface. Corresponding experimental study employs a microelectrode array on a glass surface in a tangential flow cell, to apply repulsive DEP forces on polystyrene particles suspended in an aqueous medium. Applying a non-uniform AC electric field on the microelectrodes generates the DEP force field that levitates the polystyrene particles above the surface. This study indicates that the repulsive dielectrophoretic forces imparted on the particles suspended in the feed can be employed to effectively mitigate membrane fouling in a crossflow membrane filtration process. The second phase of the study is aimed at controlling colloid transport through a microporous membrane using DEP forces acting across the pores. A theoretical analysis of colloid transport through straight cylindrical capillaries in the presence of a non-uniform AC electric field is developed. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the interaction of the particles with the electric field generates strong repulsive DEP forces, acting selectively on the colloidal particles to control particle transport through the pore. A combination of DEP forces and size exclusion in porous material is proposed to develop an energy efficient technique for colloid filtration. Experimental results on this steric-dielectrophoretic filtration are also obtained using novel ``sandwich membranes" and colloidal suspensions in a dead-end filtration system. The primary advantage of this steric-dielectrophoretic mechanism is that the filtration can be achieved by filter media (such as membranes) that have considerably larger pore sizes than the retained colloids. The technique can also result in tunable filtration mechanisms, where particles with same size but different electrical properties can be separated using suitably designed membranes. / Fluid mechanics, Electrokinetic filtration

Electrokinetics based microfluidic systems are potentially promising for lab-on-a-chip applications due to their effectiveness in manipulating nanoscale and biological objects, label-free operation, simple fabrication processes, small voltage requirements, and most importantly simple system integration strategy. Among various electrokinetics techniques, AC electrothermal flow (ACEF) is the most promising technique in microfluidic manipulation toward biomedical applications due to its effectiveness in high conductivity biological and physiological fluids. As relatively little is known about the ACEF induced fluid motion at highly conductive samples, the characteristics of electrothermal manipulation of fluid samples with different conductivities were investigated systematically. For low conductivity sample (below 1 S/m), the characteristics of the electrothermal fluid motion was in quantitative agreement with the theory. For high conductivity samples (greater than 1 S/m), the fluid motion appeared to deviate from the model as a result of electrochemical reactions and the temperature effect. Here, a universal electrode approach which directly implements ACEF-induced sample preparation on a SAM based electrochemical sensor for point-of-care diagnostics of urinary tract infections has also been demonstrated. Using uropathogenic E. coli clinical isolates as model systems, we demonstrate that "on-chip" ACEF-induced sample preparation can improve the sensor performance without complicated system integration strategy and presents a pathway for implementing truly lab on a chip, instead of chip in a lab. Finally an integrated chip approach has been proposed for transforming electrochemical sensing system from laboratory research into point-of-care diagnostics with multiple microelectrodes.

This thesis was on the development of a high-throughput electrokinetically-controlled heterogeneous immunoassay (EK-IA) microfluidic chip for clinical application. Through a series of experimental studies, a high-throughput EK-IA was developed. This EK-IA was capable of automatically screening multiple analytes from up to 10 samples in parallel, in only 26 min. Flow control in an integrated microfluidic network was realized by numerical simulation of the transport processes. This EK-IA was successfully applied to detect E. coli O157:H7 antibody and H. pylori antibody from human sera with satisfactory accuracy. Simultaneous screening of both antibodies from human sera was also achieved, demonstrating the potential of this EK-IA for efficiently detecting multiple pathogenic infections in clinical settings. Preliminary work on the application of EK-IA to detect biomarkers of embryo development in embryo culture media also yielded good results. In addition to the experimental studies, the reaction kinetics of this microfluidic EK-IA has also been investigated, using both numerical simulation and a modified Damköhler number. Targeted towards a more sensitive assay, the influences of several important parameters on the reaction kinetics were studied. This EK-IA holds great promise for automated and high-throughput immunoassay in clinical environments.

This thesis was on the development of a high-throughput electrokinetically-controlled heterogeneous immunoassay (EK-IA) microfluidic chip for clinical application. Through a series of experimental studies, a high-throughput EK-IA was developed. This EK-IA was capable of automatically screening multiple analytes from up to 10 samples in parallel, in only 26 min. Flow control in an integrated microfluidic network was realized by numerical simulation of the transport processes. This EK-IA was successfully applied to detect E. coli O157:H7 antibody and H. pylori antibody from human sera with satisfactory accuracy. Simultaneous screening of both antibodies from human sera was also achieved, demonstrating the potential of this EK-IA for efficiently detecting multiple pathogenic infections in clinical settings. Preliminary work on the application of EK-IA to detect biomarkers of embryo development in embryo culture media also yielded good results. In addition to the experimental studies, the reaction kinetics of this microfluidic EK-IA has also been investigated, using both numerical simulation and a modified Damköhler number. Targeted towards a more sensitive assay, the influences of several important parameters on the reaction kinetics were studied. This EK-IA holds great promise for automated and high-throughput immunoassay in clinical environments.

Continuous perfusion cell culture chips offer the biomedical researcher unprecedented control over the microenvironment surrounding the cell which is not feasible with conventional static cell culture procedures. Applying microfluidics technology to these devices provides several benefits including increased fluid and media control, reduced consumption of reagents, continuous monitoring of cells and the potential for massively parallel experiments. In this work a new continuous perfusion cell culture chip is studied that utilizes electroosmotic pumping to control fluid flow. Problems associated with EOF and cells are solved by incorporating electroosmotic pumps (EO pumps) which generate an induced pressure driven flow in regions with cells. Several advantages of EO pumps include pulse free flow, quick flow control and precise movement of minute volumes of fluid. However, the high salt concentration in cell culture medium creates significant problems for EO pumps such as decreased flow rate due to low zeta potential, increased electrolysis due to large current draw, significant joule heating, bubble formation and polarization. Attempts to solve these problems with the proposed microfluidic chip are discussed. The microfluidic chip is fabricated using soft lithography techniques developed as part of this work. The designs were modelled using a combination of numerical simulations with a commercial software program and compact circuit modelling. The pumps were integrated on-chip into a cell culture perfusion chip. The chip is adaptable due to the flexibility of the EO pumps to work as both pressure sources and virtual valves for regulating the fluid flow. Experiments with rainbow trout gill cells (RT-gill W1) were performed in order to validate the use of EO pumps for cell culture. Results show that the cells are not affected by the presence of the EO pumps as the electric field is isolated from the cells. However, the pumps were only able to operate continuously for eight hours before electrolysis effects stopped fluid flow. As a proof of concept, this shows that it is feasible to use EO pumps within a cell culture network.

Continuous perfusion cell culture chips offer the biomedical researcher unprecedented control over the microenvironment surrounding the cell which is not feasible with conventional static cell culture procedures. Applying microfluidics technology to these devices provides several benefits including increased fluid and media control, reduced consumption of reagents, continuous monitoring of cells and the potential for massively parallel experiments. In this work a new continuous perfusion cell culture chip is studied that utilizes electroosmotic pumping to control fluid flow. Problems associated with EOF and cells are solved by incorporating electroosmotic pumps (EO pumps) which generate an induced pressure driven flow in regions with cells. Several advantages of EO pumps include pulse free flow, quick flow control and precise movement of minute volumes of fluid. However, the high salt concentration in cell culture medium creates significant problems for EO pumps such as decreased flow rate due to low zeta potential, increased electrolysis due to large current draw, significant joule heating, bubble formation and polarization. Attempts to solve these problems with the proposed microfluidic chip are discussed. The microfluidic chip is fabricated using soft lithography techniques developed as part of this work. The designs were modelled using a combination of numerical simulations with a commercial software program and compact circuit modelling. The pumps were integrated on-chip into a cell culture perfusion chip. The chip is adaptable due to the flexibility of the EO pumps to work as both pressure sources and virtual valves for regulating the fluid flow. Experiments with rainbow trout gill cells (RT-gill W1) were performed in order to validate the use of EO pumps for cell culture. Results show that the cells are not affected by the presence of the EO pumps as the electric field is isolated from the cells. However, the pumps were only able to operate continuously for eight hours before electrolysis effects stopped fluid flow. As a proof of concept, this shows that it is feasible to use EO pumps within a cell culture network.

No description available.