Electrokinetics Models for Micro and Nano Fluidic Impedance Sensors

Microfluidics- and nanofluidics-based impedance sensors play an important role in identification of toxic industrial chemicals and pathogens in biodetection and biodefense arena. However, their efficient modeling and design continues to be a challenge. This paper presents high-fidelity models to resolve the electrokinetic transport process at the micro- and nano-scale and capture the critical effects of various design parameters on the electrokinetic transport and sensor performance such as medium concentration, electric conductivity, feature sizes and fluidic manipulation. The models, verified by experiments, can be utilized for fast, accurate analysis design, and protocol development of novel micro- and nano- fluidics based impedance sensors.