(4o) Electrokinetic Transport of Nanoparticles through Micro and Nanochannels

Electrokinetic transport of small particles in micro and nanochannels is one of the principal mechanisms for many practical applications in biomedical science such as drug delivery. For electrokinetically driven molecules of interest, such as proteins, the porous substrate electroporation (PSEP) system offers great control over the delivery of these molecules to the targeted cells. However, the widespread use of PSEP and other similar systems still requires a fundamental understanding of the system performance. Although experimental circuit models have been used to evaluate the main components of the system, theoretical models are still lacking to understand the underlying mechanism of molecule dynamics and optimize the delivery performance. In fact, the experimental data have indicated distinctive dependence of molecule transport on the pore diameter of the charged membrane under action of an electric field. To shed light on the underlying transport mechanism and explain the experimental observation, we use a theoretical and computational framework to model the motion of charged particles in micro and nanochannels with charged walls under the applied electric field. In this presentation, we show the effects of pore and particle sizes, their zeta potentials, and the Debye layer thickness on particle mobility to investigate the delivery performance. Presumably, the electrokinetic transport of particles under this condition stems from electrophoresis of particles and electroosmosis flow of membranes. We also discuss different delivery regimes in terms of Debye later thickness relative to channel size. Lastly, we evaluate the contribution of Brownian diffusion and other possibly effective phenomena in molecule transport.

Research Interests: Electrokinetics, Fluid mechanics, Electroporation, Bionanotechnology, Nanoparticles, Microchannels, Nanochannels, Microfluidics, Drug delivery