Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2020) 24:1

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-019-2306-y

RESEARCH PAPER

Continuous microfluidic mixing and the highly controlled nanoparticle

synthesis using direct current‑induced thermal buoyancy convection
Kailiang Zhang1 · Yukun Ren1,2 · Likai Hou1 · Ye Tao1 · Weiyu Liu3 · Tianyi Jiang1 · Hongyuan Jiang1,2

Received: 1 August 2019 / Accepted: 12 November 2019 / Published online: 21 November 2019
© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract
We present a flexible and noninvasive approach for efficient continuous micromixing and microreaction based on direct
current-induced thermal buoyancy convection in a single microfluidic unit. Theoretically, microfluids in this microsystem are
unevenly heated by powering the asymmetrically arranged microheater. The thermal buoyancy convection is then formed to
induce microvortices that cause effective fluidic interface disturbance, thereby promoting the diffusion and convective mass
transfer. The temperature distribution and the convection flow in the microchip are first characterized and studied, which can
be flexibly adjusted by changing the DC voltage. Then the mixing performance of the presented method is validated by joint
numerical and experimental analyses. Specifically, at U = 7 V, the mixing efficiencies are higher than 90% as the flow rate
is lower than Qv= 600 nL/s. So high-quality chemical or biochemical reactions needing both suitable heating and efficient
mixing can be achieved using this method. Finally, as one example, we use this method to synthesize nano-sized cuprous
oxide ­(Cu2O) particles by effectively mixing the Benedict’s solution and glucose buffer. Remarkably, the particle size can
be tuned by changing the voltage and the concentration of Benedict’s solution. Therefore, this micromixer can be attractive
for diverse applications needing homogeneous sample mixtures.

Keywords Continuous microfluid mixing · Thermal buoyancy convection · Cuprous oxide particles · Particle synthesis

1 Introduction reactions(Kang et al. 2014; Kulkarni et al. 2017), biological

Efficient micromixing in continuous flows is a crucial
upstream operation prior to synthesis, detecting and analysis
in various microfluidic-based applications, such as chemical
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this
article (https​://doi.org/10.1007/s1040​4-019-2306-y) contains
supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
* Yukun Ren
rykhit@hit.edu.cn
* Hongyuan Jiang
jhy_hit@hit.edu.cn
1
School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute
of Technology, Harbin 150001, Heilongjiang,
People’s Republic of China
2
State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System, Harbin
Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, Heilongjiang,
People’s Republic of China
3
School of Electronics and Control Engineering,
Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, Shannxi,
People’s Republic of China
analyses(Feng et al. 2016) and material syntheses(Britton
and Raston 2017; Miyakawa et al. 2014). However, continu-
ous micromixing is challenging since the fluids in micro-
channels are typically in a laminar unmixed state because
of the low Reynolds number and is often dominated by slow
molecular diffusion. For this reason, lots of passive mix-
ing strategies (Lam et al. 2005; Liu et al. 2013; Santana
et al. 2019; Wang et al. 2018) relying on the special channel
geometry and active ones (Deng et al. 2018; Fu et al. 2013;
Pan et al. 2007; Zhang et al. 2018) depending on the exter-
nal physical fields have been put forward. Concretely, the
passive mixers operate without need for additional external
energy but are inflexible as the complicated channel struc-
tures and long mixing lengths (Cortes-Quiroz et al. 2017;
Yu et al. 2018). The active mixing means, however, usually
have simple microchannels and the mixing performance can
be flexibly manipulated by external fields, such as electric
(Chang and Yang 2009; Chen et al. 2009; Lim et al. 2010;
Wu and Li 2007), acoustic(Cui et al. 2016; Lu et al. 2018;
Wang et al. 2012), and magnetic (Roy et al. 2009; Wang
et al. 2011).

13
Vol.:(0123456789)
1 Page 2 of 14
Recently, thermal-field-based micromixing is becom-
ing increasingly attractive due to it noninvasive nature and
simple manipulation mechanisms. First, the elevated fluid
temperature can highly improve the molecular diffusion pro-
cess since the diffusion coefficient is positively temperature-
dependent (Zhang et al. 2019). More importantly, thermal
buoyancy convection (Flores–Flores et al. 2015; Zheng et al.
2018) and thermocapillary convection (Mallea et al. 2017;
Winterer et al. 2018; Yang et al. 2018) can be induced under
a temperature gradient field, which can dramatically dis-
turb the fluidic interface and then improve the convective
mass transfer process. The thermal buoyancy convection is
caused by the inertial effect within the unevenly heated liq-
uid media, where the hotter fluid rises up and the cooler one
goes down because the fluid density decreases as the tem-
perature increases (Kang et al. 2015; Vela et al. 2009). The
thermocapillary convection originates from the slip of une-
venly heated gas–liquid (or liquid–liquid) interfaces (Prad-
han and Panigrahi 2015; Velez-Cordero et al. 2014). Lastly,
the elevated temperature can simultaneously trigger the
chemical reactions requiring heating, such as the synthesis
of gold nanoparticle (Ftouni et al. 2012) and the polymerase
chain reaction (Ahrberg et al. 2016). Therefore, compared
with those microsystems utilizing the integration of a mixer
and a heating unit to trigger the chemical reactions needing
heating conditions (Ftouni et al. 2012; Liu et al. 2011), the
thermal-based strategies are simple and high-efficiency since
they can enable not only the efficient micromixing but also
the simultaneous microreaction using a single unit.
On the basis of these thermal-induced micromixing
mechanisms, to date, several micromixing devices utiliz-
ing either the thermal field (Kim et al. 2009; Yesiloz et al.
2017) or the combination of thermal field and other phys-
ical effects (e.g., acoustic and electric fields) (Qu et al.
2017; Zhang et al. 2016) have been proposed. Although
these designs are useful and promising, there are some
practical challenges limiting their further applicability.
First, to our knowledge, the systematic investigation and
demonstration of thermal-induced mixing mechanisms
have been less advanced, and the applicability of these
mixers has not been validated. Second, many parts in
these chips (e.g., the microwave heaters and interdigital
electrodes) are expensive and time-consuming for fabrica-
tion, which definitely limit the popularization, integration
and commercialization. More importantly, these reported
microdevices have limited applied ranges. Specifically,
these presented microchips merely using thermal field are
aimed at either discrete droplets or static liquid media,
resulting in a low throughput regime. As for the strategies
combining the thermal effect and other physical fields, the
thermal-electrical methods have a strict requirement on
fluid conductivity because of the introduction of electric
field (Ng et al. 2009; Zhang et al. 2016). And the heating
13
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2020) 24:1
efficiency of fluid in the acoustic-thermal approaches is
low because of the extra energy consumption for fluid mix-
ing (Qu et al. 2017; Wang et al. 2017). So aiming at these
three issues, it is meaningful and important to propose
an efficient, economic and high-throughput thermal-based
approach with a low dependence on fluid characteristics
for continuous micromixing and microreaction, and to
reveal the mixing mechanism behind it.
In this paper, we present a novel method for efficient
continuous micromixing and microreaction based on direct
current-induced thermal buoyancy convection (shown in
Fig. 1) in a single microfluidic unit. This microdevice uti-
lizes a simple indium tin oxide (ITO)-made asymmetrical
microheater to heat fluids of interest (The electrode and
mixing mechanism are shown in Fig. 1b–d), resulting in
the formation of thermal buoyancy convection. Convec-
tion flow-induced microvortices give rise to effective flu-
idic interface disturbance and convective mass transfer.
The mixing performance of the presented micromixer is
validated by joint numerical and experimental analyses.
Specifically, at U = 7 V, the mixing efficiencies are higher
than 90% at a flow rate lower than Qv= 600 nL/s. Finally,
to demonstrate this strategy’s capability for simultaneously
conducting reactions, nano-sized cuprous oxide (­ Cu2O)
microparticles are synthesized by effectively mixing the
Benedict’s solution and glucose buffer in this microdevice.
Remarkably, the particle size can be tuned by changing the
DC voltage and the concentration of Benedict’s solution.
Therefore, this microreactor can be attractive for diverse
applications, especially the biochemical reactions needing
external heat.
Fig. 1  a Three-dimensional schematic of the micromixing device. b
Top view of the micromixer. c Side view of the main channel. d Mix-
ing mechanism: The vortex induced by buoyancy flow can disturb flu-
idic interface and improve the convective mass transfer of two fluids,
the enhanced liquid temperature also enables an improved diffusive
mass transfer process as the diffusion coefficient D increases with the
temperature. e Picture of the micromixing device
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2020) 24:1 Page 3 of 14 1

2 Theoretical background The heat transfer in fluids meets the liquid heat transfer
equation,
The fluids in microchannel will be unevenly heated when ( )
𝜕T
the asymmetical microheater is powered. Since the physi- 𝜌0 cp + u ⋅ ∇T − ∇ ⋅ (kf ∇T) = 0 (6)
𝜕t
cal parameters of fluids (e.g., density and viscosity) are all
temperature-dependent, there will be a density difference where, 𝜌0 is the density, cp the heat capacity, kf the thermal
in the unevenly heated microfluids. Then the fluids will conductivity.
be driven by the density difference-induced force (buoy- At the interfaces of different materials, the temperature
ancy force). Finally a three-dimensional convection flow and the normal heat flux are continuous.
is formed in the fluids of interest. The convection flow- Since the microdevice is exposed to the air, the surface-
induced microvortices on cross-sections help to disturb the air satisfies,
fluidic interface and improve the convective mass transfer. ( )
𝜕T
The basic theories describing the heat and mass transfer in −k = h(Ts − Tr ) (7)
𝜕n s
this microdevice are as follows.
where, k is the thermal conductivity, h the convective heat
transfer coefficient, n the external normal line of the outer
2.1 Heat transfer surface of the microchip, Ts the temperature of the chip’s
surface, Tr the temperature of the surrounding air.
The heat in this microdevice comes from the Joule heat-
ing effect of the ITO-made microheater. The temperature
distribution of the microheater meets the heat-conduction 2.2 Mass transfer
differential equation with internal heat source,
The thermal buoyancy convection is governed by the
𝜕T
𝜌I cI = ∇ ⋅ (kI ∇T) + q (1) Navier–Stokes and the continuity equations
𝜕t
where, 𝜌I is the density of ITO film, cI the heat capacity, kI 𝜌0 (u ⋅ ∇)u = 𝜇(T)∇2 u − ∇p + F (8a)
the thermal conductivity, q the Joule heating source.
The Joule heating flux density q is related to the electric ∇⋅u=0 (8b)
current density and electric field intensity,
where, 𝜌0 is the fluid density at room temperature T0 , 𝜇(T)
q = J⋅ E = 𝜎 ⋅ |∇𝜙| 2
(2) the dynamic viscosity at temperature T, p the pressure, F the
buoyancy force, F = −g[𝜌0 − 𝜌(T)] ≈ −g𝜌0 𝛽T (T − T0 )(𝜌(T)
where, q is the Joule heat flux density, J the electric current the fluid density at temperature T, 𝛽T the thermal expansion
density, E the electric field intensity, σ the conductivity of coefficient).
ITO film. 𝜙 the electric potential. At fluid–wall interfaces, the flow field meets the no-slip
The electric potential distribution of the microheater boundary condition: uwall = 0.
meets the Laplace’s equation. The concentration of samples meets the convective-dif-
fusion equation,
∇ ⋅ (𝜎E) = −𝜎∇2 𝜙 = 0 (3)
𝜕c
At the microheater’s surface, the electric current density + (u ⋅ ∇)c = ∇ ⋅ [D(T)∇c] (9)
𝜕t
J meets the following equation,
where, c is the concentration of species, D(T) the diffusion
J⋅n=0 (4) coefficient at the temperature T.
where, n is the unit normal vector. The dimensionless convective-diffusion equation can be
As for the glass substrate and PDMS channel, their tem- given by
perature distributions satisfy the unsteady-state heat-con- 𝜕c∗ 1 2 ∗
duction differential equation without internal heat source, + (u∗ ⋅ ∇)c∗ = ∇c (10)
𝜕t∗ Pe

𝜌gp cgp
𝜕T
= ∇ ⋅ (kgp ∇T) (5) where Pe(T) = UL
D(T)
is the Peclet number, which represents
𝜕t the ratio of convection effect-to-molecular diffusion. U is the
where, 𝜌gp is the density, cgp the heat capacity, kgp the thermal characteristic convection rate, L the characteristic size of
conductivity. microchannel, D(T) the diffusion coefficient at temperature
T.

13
1 Page 4 of 14
At the surfaces, inlets and outlet of the microchannel, the
concentration field meets the following boundary conditions,
⎧ 0 Inlet1
⎪
⎨ 1 Inlet2 (11)
⎪ n ⋅ ∇c = 0 Wall,Outlet
⎩
where, n is the unit normal vector of channel walls and
outlet.
3 Materials and methods
3.1 Device design and sample preparation
This micromixer is composed of an indium tin oxide (ITO)
glass (the thicknesses of the substrate and ITO film are
1.1 mm and 1 µm, respectively) in the bottom, a glass slide
with a height of 140 µm in the middle, and a polydimethyl-
siloxane (PDMS) microchannel in the top. The pattern of the
microheater is obtained after an etching process. The micro-
channel is fabricated by pouring and curing the PDMS on a
polymethylmethlacrylate (PMMA) mold. During the assem-
bly process of the microchip, the thin glass slide and the
ITO glass are first bonded together using UV glue. Then the
thin glass slide and the PDMS channel are assembled after
an oxygen plasma treatment (ZEPTO, Diener, Germany).
The dimension parameters of this micromixer are marked in
Fig. 1b–c. Specifically, w1 = 3 mm, w2 = 1 mm, w3 = 1 mm,
w4 = 2 mm, w5 = 0 mm, h1 = 1 μm, h2 = 0.4 mm, h3 = 1 mm,
and L = 20 mm. In these parameters, the electrode width (w3)
and electrode displacement w5 are determined by numeri-
cally analyzing their effects on mixing performance (see
Fig. 4a–b). The mixing length used in this work is 6 mm.
The fluorescent intensity of Rhodamine B solution is
strongly temperature-dependent. To investigate the temper-
ature distribution of fluid, 0.1 mM Rhodamine B solutions
are injected into the main channel of the micromixer through
two inlets using a syringe pump (PHD Ultra, Harvard Appa-
ratus). A fluorescence microscope (IX73, Olympus, Japan)
with a CMOS camera (Prime 95B, Photometrics) is used
to visualize the concentration fields and micromixing pro-
cess. A DC power supply (KXN-305D, Zhao Xin, China) is
utilized to power the microheater. The image of the experi-
mental setup is provided in Fig. S1 of the Supporting Infor-
mation. For visualizing the mixing process of solvents, one
fluid is 0.003 mM fluorescein (Kermel, Tianjin) dissolved
in deionized water (or absolute ethanol), the other one is
deionized water (or absolute ethanol).
The nano-sized ­Cu2O particles are synthesized by mixing
the Benedict’s solution (Tianjin Opson Chemical Sales Co.,
Ltd, China) and glucose buffer. The Benedict’s solution can
13
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2020) 24:1
also be prepared by the following process. First, 85 grams of
sodium citrate and 50 grams of anhydrous sodium carbonate
are dissolved in 400 mL of deionized water. Then 8.5 grams
of anhydrous copper sulfate is added to 50 mL of hot water.
Finally, the Benedict’s solution is obtained by mixing the
solutions prepared in the first two steps. The concentration
of glucose buffer used in experiments is 0.2 M. The syn-
thesized particles are visualized using a scanning electron
microscope (SU-8010, Hitachi, Japan).
3.2 Temperature distribution and thermal
buoyancy convection
To analyze the temperature distribution and thermal buoy-
ancy convection in this microdevice, a three-dimensional
simulation model is first established using a COMSOL soft-
ware (COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3a). Figure 2a shows an
elliptical temperature profile of the substrate–fluid interface
in the steady state at a DC voltage of 6 V. The temperature
is unevenly distributed and dissipated from the microheater
to the surrounding regions. The maximum temperature Tm
(marked in Fig. 2a), an important parameter evaluating the
heating characteristic of the microheater, is located at the
electrode center. Figure 2b exhibits the temperature distribu-
tions of fluids on three cross-sections (marked in Fig. 2a).
Specifically, the fluid closing to the microheater has the
maximum temperature, and the fluid located at the other
side of microchannel has the minimum temperature. Addi-
tionally, the temperature distributions on these three cross
sections are slightly different. This phenomenon is explained
as follows. The generated Joule heat at different positions
of the microheater is same. However, compared with the
electrode element far from the electrode center, the element
close to the electrode center is more difficult to dissipate
the heat because of the lower temperature difference in its
surrounding regions. Therefore, the temperature is unevenly
distributed along the electrode length. Corresponding to the
temperature profiles on these three cross sections, the flow
fields are given in Fig. 2c. A microvortex crossing the whole
section is formed when the microheater is powered, which
can significantly disturb the fluidic interface and improve the
convective mass transfer. Because of the slight differences
of temperature distributions on these three cross-sections,
the induced flow fields are also different from each other.
Figure 2d displays the experimental electric current and
numerical maximum temperature Tm of the microheater as
a function of DC voltage. It can be seen that the electric
current linearly increases with the DC voltage, indicating
that the resistance of the microheater can be treated as a
constant (~ 50 Ω) under different temperatures. The maxi-
mum temperature Tm, however, nonlinearly increases with
the rising DC voltage. And it can reach 377.2 K as the DC
voltage is 9 V.
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2020) 24:1
Fig. 2  a–bTemperature distributions on the xy-plane (z = 0 μm) (a)
and the I–I, II–II, and III–III cross-sections (marked in Fig. 2a) b at
U = 6 V and Qv = 300 nL/s. c Flow fields on the I–I, II–II, and III–III
cross sections at U = 6 V and Qv = 300 nL/s. (d) The current–voltage
and the maximum temperature Tm-voltage curves of the microheater.
Figure 2e shows the plots of temperature difference
Th(x)− Tc(x) (Th(x) and Tc(x) are marked in Fig. 2a) versus chan-
nel length L at different DC voltages. It is observed that
Th(x)− Tc(x) decreases along the channel length, whereas, it
can be treated as a constant when L is smaller than 6 mm.
Moreover, Th(x)− Tc(x) increases as the voltage rises, and it
can reach 11 K at U = 8 V. Figure 2f depicts the relation-
ships between the average transverse convection velocity
(average|uy|) and the channel length under different voltages
and the fixed flow rate of 300 nL/s. Although the average|uy|
varies with the channel length, the difference is very small
and can be neglected. And also, the average|uy| is positively
affected by the increased DC voltage. Specifically, the
average transverse convection velocity increases from 0 to
480 μm/s as the DC voltage rise from 0 to 8 V. This can be
explained that the temperature difference positively depends
on the DC voltage (Fig. 2e), and the increased temperature
induces more intensive buoyancy flow (Eq. 8a). Therefore,
the buoyancy-flow-induced micromixing process can be con-
trolled by the DC voltage.
To experimentally determine the temperature distribution
of the fluid–substrate interface and validate the accuracy of
numerical analyses, a kind of thermometry based on tem-
perature-dependent fluorescent intensity is used in this work.
That is, the fluorescent intensity of Rhodamine B solution is
Page 5 of 14 1
e The temperature difference (Th(x)− Tc(x)) (marked in Fig. 2a) along
the channel length under different voltages when the flow rate Qv
is 300 nL/s. f The average transverse convection velocity along the
channel length under different voltages when the flow rate Qv is 300
nL/s
strongly temperature-dependent, so the temperature of fluid
can be determined according to the relationship between
the local temperature and florescent intensity of the 0.1 mM
Rhodamine B solution (Zhao et al. 2013).
T(K) = [A0 + A1 S(T) + A2 S2 (T) + A3 S3 (T)](K) (12)
where S(T) = I(T)/IRT is the dimensionless fluorescent inten-
sity, I(T) the fluorescent intensity at temperature T, IRT the
fluorescent intensity at room temperature (293.15 K). The
fitting parameters in Eq. (12) are determined by measuring
the fluorescent intensities of 0.1 mM Rhodamine B solution
at various temperatures (Fig. 3a). Specifically, A0 = 387.81,
A1 = −246.58, A2 = 264.17, A3 = −112.25.
0.1 mM Rhodamine B solutions are simultaneously
injected into the main channel of the micromixers through
two separate inlets. The distributions of fluorescent intensity
under different DC voltages are obtained through a fluores-
cence microscope (IX73, Olympus, Japan) with a CMOS
camera (Prime 95B) and an image J software. Finally,
the average (Th− Tc) and Tm (Th, Tc, and Tm are marked
in Fig. 2a) can be calculated using Eq. (12). As shown in
Fig. 3b, the experimental temperatures and temperature dif-
ferences match well with the numerical results, proving the
accuracy of above numerical analyses.
13
1 Page 6 of 14
Fig. 3  a Plot of dimensionless fluorescent intensity versus tempera-
ture for 0.1 mM Rhodamine B aqueous solution. b Experimental and
numerical results of the average (Th− Tc) and Tm under different volt-
ages
4 Results and discussion
4.1 Numerical analysis
After the analysis of thermal buoyancy convection, the
mass transfer process induced by convection flow is fur-
ther analyzed. Figure 4a and b compares the mixing per-
formance of the mixer at different voltages and the fixed
flow rate of 900 nL/s. The concentration gradient and the
concentration distribution along three cross-sections are
analyzed and compared. The cross-sections are selected
at three different positions L 1 = 0 mm, L 2 = 6 mm and
L3 = 12 mm along the length of the micromixer. The con-
centration gradient and concentration distributions at L1,
L2, and L3 of the mixer are completely different.
When power is off, the concentration gradient contour
and concentration distribution in main channel show that
the molecular diffusion process cannot mix the microfluids
well (Fig. 4a). While the microheater is powered by a 6-V
DC voltage, the microfluids are effectively mixed by the
transverse convection flow inside the micromixer (Fig. 4b),
demonstrating that it is efficient to mix fluids by thermal
buoyancy convection.
13
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2020) 24:1
To quantitatively evaluate the mixing performance, the
mixing index is defined by the following equation (Feng
et al. 2019; Yesiloz et al. 2017),
� ∑
1∕n (Ii − Iav )2
Me = 1 − (13)
Iav
where, Ii is the concentration (or fluorescent intensity) of
each point, n the total number of the pixels, Iav the average
concentration (or fluorescent intensity). The range of the
mixing index is 0–1. At an unmixed state, the mixing index
is zero. As for the completely mixed sample mixture, the
mixing index is 1. Usually the micromixer has an excellent
mixing performance when the mixing efficiency is higher
than 0.9.
Using this quantitative index, we first investigate the
effects of dimension parameters of the chip (including the
electrode width w3, electrode displacement w5, and the
channel height h3) on mixing performance. According to
Fig. 4 a–b, it is observed that the mixing efficiency is mix-
ing-length-dependent. To quantify the mixing performance
of the chip, the mixing length used in this work is 6 mm.
That is, the concentration distributions used for mixing per-
formance evaluation are obtained at II–II line (marked in
Fig. 4a). Figure 5a shows the curve of mixing index ver-
sus the electrode width w3 at a fixed flow rate of 300 nL/s
and a constant output power of 0.72 W. Specifically, the
mixing efficiency slightly decreases as the electrode width
rises from 0.2 to 1 mm, and then it dramatically declines
when the electrode width is further increased. This variation
trend can be explained by the following statements. First, the
increased electrode width will reduce the temperature dif-
ference of fluid, leading to a decreased convection velocity.
Besides, a microvortex crossing the whole section changes
into a counter-rotating vortex pair when the electrode width
is higher than 1 mm (Fig. 5a). Some previous studies have
proved that the microvortex crossing the whole section has
the greater disturbance to fluidic interface compared with
the second vortex pair (Harnett et al. 2008; Zhang et al.
2018). So the changed vortex pair can further decrease the
mixing efficiency. Therefore, the mixing efficiency is sig-
nificantly decreased as the electrode width is higher than
1 mm. Based on above analyses, when the output power is
fixed at 0.72 W, although the mixer always has an excellent
mixing performance when the electrode width ranges from
0.2 to 1 mm, the microheater needs smaller control voltages
at w3 = 1 mm. That is, the control signal only varies from 0
to 8 V at w3 = 1 mm, which makes the presented microfluidic
platform possibly miniaturized by replacing the DC signal
generator using small batteries. And also, at w3 = 1 mm, the
higher output electric current is easier to measure compared
with results in other smaller electrode width. Therefore, the
electrode width of this micromixer is finally set as 1 mm.
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2020) 24:1
Fig. 4  a Simulated concentration distribution when power is off at
Qv= 900 nL/s. a1 exhibits the concentration distribution on xy-plane.
a2–a4 show the concentration distributions on the I–I, II–II, and III–
III section, respectively. a5–a7 display the concentration gradient
on the I–I, II–II, and III–III section, respectively. b Simulated con-
Then we adjust the electrode displacement w5 (marked
in Fig. 1b), the distance between the upper edge of the
electrode and the upper side of main channel, to study the
influence of electrode position on mixing performance. As
Page 7 of 14 1
centration distribution at U = 6 V and Qv= 900 nL/s. b1 exhibits the
concentration distribution on xy-plane. b2–b4 show the concentration
distributions on the I–I, II–II, and III–III section, respectively. b5–b7
display the concentration gradient on I–I, II–II, and III–III section,
respectively
shown in Fig. 5b, when the DC voltage and flow rate are
fixed at 6 V and 300 nL/s, respectively, the mixing efficiency
decreases from 98.4 to 86.0% as the electrode displacement
w5 increases from 0 to 1 mm. This negative relationship
13
1 Page 8 of 14
Fig. 5  a Mixing efficiencies and average transverse convection veloc-
ities under different electrode widths at P = 0.72 W and Qv= 300 nL/s.
b Mixing efficiencies and average transverse convection velocities
under different electrode displacements at U = 6 V and Qv= 300 nL/s.
c Mixing efficiencies and average transverse convection velocities
under different channel heights at U = 6 V and Qv= 900 nL/s. d Mix-
is due to the fact that the temperature difference decreases
and the vortex changes from a vortex crossing the whole
section to a counter-rotating vortex pair as the electrode dis-
placement rises. Similar to above analyses, the decreased
temperature difference and the changed vortex pattern both
negatively influence the mixing efficiency. Therefore, the
final electrode displacement is set as 0 mm based on this
numerical result.
The effect of channel height on the mixing efficiency is
further analyzed. As shown in Fig. 5c, the mixing efficiency
is positively influenced by the channel height. Specifically,
at the fixed voltage of 6 V and the constant flow rate of
900 nL/s, the mixing efficiency increases by 163.5% (from
37.3 to 98.3%) as the channel height rises from 0.5 to 3 mm.
This result can be explained that the magnitude of buoy-
ancy force acting on whole fluid is proportional the cube of
the characteristic size of microchannel. And the buoyancy
force positively affects the intensity of thermal buoyancy
convection (Zhang et al. 2019). In previous micromixing
studies, the homogeneous concentration distribution pro-
files obtained from the top view of the chip can be used
to represent the excellent mixing state of the whole fluid
only when the aspect ratio of microchannel is no less than
3 (Chen and Yang 2007; Loucaides et al. 2012; Ng et al.
2009). Therefore, the channel width and height are set as
3 mm and 1 mm, respectively.
When the dimension parameters of the chip are deter-
mined, the influences of DC voltage and fluid parameters
13
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2020) 24:1
ing efficiencies of the final design under different voltages at Qv= 300
nL/s. e Mixing efficiencies of the final design under different flow
rates at U = 6 V. Velocity ratio refers to the ratio of average transverse
velocity to the average axial velocity. f Mixing efficiencies under dif-
ferent viscosities at U = 6 V and Qv= 300 nL/s
on the mixing performance are studied. Figure 5d shows the
mixing efficiencies of the chip under different DC voltages
at Qv = 300 nL/s. It can be seen that the mixing efficiency
has a positive relationship with the applied voltage. And the
mixing efficiency can reach as high as 99.1% at U = 8 V and
Qv = 300 nL/s. Since the increased flow rate will decrease
the working time and the relative intensity of transverse con-
vection flow, the mixing efficiency decreases as the flow rate
rises (Fig. 5e). And compared with the mixing efficiency
at Qv = 300 nL/s, the result at Qv = 900 nL/s decreases by
12.6%. Finally, we analyze the effect of fluid viscosity on
mixing performance. As shown in Fig. 5f, the mixing per-
formance is negatively affected by the fluid viscosity. The
mixing efficiency decreases from 98.4 to 52.2% when the
fluid viscosity rises from 1 to 8 mPa s. This phenomenon
is due to the fact that the fluid viscosity will decrease the
intensity of convection flow. So the convective mass transfer
process can be weakened by the increased fluid viscosity.
4.2 Experimental validation
Besides the numerical analyses, we also perform system-
atic micromixing experiments by injecting deionized (DI)
water and fluorescent buffer (fluorescence dissolved in DI
water) into the main channel through two separate inlets.
Figure 6a–c shows the concentration distribution profiles
under different voltages. Specifically, an unmixed laminar
flow state at Qv = 300 nL/s is observed when power is off
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2020) 24:1
Fig. 6  a–c Concentration distribution profiles under different voltages at Qv= 300 nL/s. d Normalized fluorescent intensities across the channel
width at L(x) = 6 mm
(Fig. 6a). Whereas, the homogeneous mixing of DI water
and fluorescein is achieved when the microheater is pow-
ered. Importantly, compared with the result at U = 4 V
(shown in Fig. 6b), a shorter mixing length is needed at
a higher voltage (Fig. 6c). To quantify the mixing perfor-
mance, the cross-sectional dye concentration profiles (the
dashed lines in Fig. 6) are plotted by measuring the gray
value of the experimental images. As shown in Fig. 6d, the
normalized intensities of the unmixed fluids are 0 for deion-
ized water and 1 for the dyed solution. When the microheater
is powered by a 6-V DC voltage, the normalized fluorescent
intensity is uniform across the microchannel width.
According to the quantitative index of mixing efficiency
(Eq. 13), we first study the effects of the DC voltage and flow
rate on the mixing performance of water solution. Figure 7a
Fig. 7  a Concentration distribution profiles under different flow rates
at U = 6 V. b Mixing efficiencies under different channel lengths at
U = 6 V. c Mixing efficiencies under different voltages at L(x) = 6 mm.
Page 9 of 14 1
shows the concentration distribution profiles at three flow
rates and the fixed DC voltage of 6 V. The mixing length
used for thorough fluid mixing increases with the rising flow
rates. Figure 7b indicates the plots of mixing efficiency ver-
sus channel length under three flow rates and the fixed volt-
age of 6 V. It can be seen that the mixing efficiency increases
with the channel length. This phenomenon can be explained
that the working time of transverse convection flow improves
as the channel length rises. Importantly, the mixing perfor-
mance can reach 93.4%, a highly efficient mixing state, at
Qv = 300 nL/s and L = 6 mm. Figure 7c exhibits the varia-
tions of mixing efficiency with DC voltage under three flow
rates and the fixed channel length of 6 mm (See Movie S1
in the Supporting Information). Since the intensity of ther-
mal buoyancy convection increases with the rising voltage,
d Mixing efficiencies under different flow rates at U = 6 V and
L(x) = 6 mm. e Mixing performances of absolute ethanol under differ-
ent DC voltages at L(x) = 6 mm
13
1 Page 10 of 14
the DC voltage has a positive influence on the mixing effi-
ciency. Concretely, at a fixed flow rate of 300 nL/s, the mix-
ing efficiency improves from 13.5 to 97.3% as the voltage
ranges from 0 to 8 V. Figure 7 d shows the experimental and
numerical mixing efficiencies at different flow rates and a
fixed DC voltage of 6 V. The flow rate negatively affects the
mixing of water solution and fluorescent dye. Specifically,
the mixing performance decreases from 93.4 to 74.4% as
the flow rate rises from 300 to 900 nL/s. This is owing to
the fact that the working time and the relative intensity of
transverse convection flow decrease with the increased flow
rate. Additionally, the experimental and numerical results
have a good agreement with each other, demonstrating the
accuracy of our numerical analyses.
Besides the mixing of water solution, we further use the
insulating absolute ethanol as an experimental sample to
study the applicability of designed chip on the mixing of
insulating fluids. During the experimental process, one solu-
tion is absolute ethanol, the other is fluorescently labeled
absolute ethanol. Figure 7e shows the variations of mix-
ing efficiency of absolute ethanol with DC voltage at three
flow rates. It can be seen that the DC voltage also positively
affects the mixing states of ethanol. And the absolute ethanol
can reach a highly effective mixing state (Me = 90.8%) at
U = 6 V and Qv = 300 nL/s. This experiment demonstrates
that the presented design can be used for the mixing of both
conducting and insulating buffers. Therefore, compared with
the commonly used electrokinetic micromixing devices rely-
ing on the conductivity of buffer solution (Cao et al. 2007;
Jain et al. 2009; Sugioka 2010), the presented method can be
used in a broader range of on-chip applications.
5 Nano‑sized ­Cu2O particle synthesis
Cu2O is a kind of semiconductor material, which has a good
absorption characteristic to visible light, and the theoretical
energy conversion rate can be as high as 14– 20% (Akimoto
et al. 2006; Nian et al. 2008). So the ­Cu2O has been widely
used in solar cells, photo-catalytic degradation of organic pol-
lutants, photohydrolysis of water for hydrogen, and gas sen-
sors (Kim et al. 2013; Kwon et al. 2015; Lee et al. 2011).
To demonstrate the applicability of this thermal microreactor
on material synthesis, ­Cu2O particles are tried to synthesize
by rapidly and efficiently mixing the Benedict’s solution and
glucose buffer. The synthesis mechanism of C ­ u2O particles is
shown in Fig. 8a and Eqs. (14) and (15).
Cu2+ + 2OH− → Cu(OH)2 (14)
CH2 OH(CHOH)4 CHO + 2Cu(OH)2
⟶ ΔCH2 OH(CHOH)4 COOH + 2H2 O + Cu2 O ↓ (15)
13
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2020) 24:1
During the experimental process, the standard Benedict’s
solution and glucose buffer with a concentration of 0.2 M are
simultaneously injected into the main channel. And the volume
flow rate in the main channel is 300 nL/s. Then these two fluids
are effectively mixed by the transverse convection flow. Mean-
time, the reaction between the Benedict’s solution and glucose
buffer is triggered by the elevated fluid temperature. Figure 8
b–c exhibit the SEM images of synthesized C ­ u2O particles
at U = 5 V (Fig. 8b) and 8 V (Fig. 8c), respectively. It can be
seen that the synthesized ­Cu2O particles are all cubic. The
particle size distributions at these two different voltages are
given in Fig. 8d. Specifically, the average size and the stand-
ard deviation of particle size at U = 5 V are 0.967 μm and
0.12 μm, respectively. However, the synthesized particles are
much smaller and more uniform at U = 8 V since the average
size and the standard deviation of particle size, respectively,
decrease to 0.680 μm and 0.09 μm. The influence of DC volt-
age on particle size is further exhibited in Fig. 8e. It is shown
that the particle size is negatively affected by DC voltage. The
particle size decreases by 29.7% as the DC voltage rises from
5 to 8 V.
Furthermore, we investigate the effect of the concentration
of Benedict’s solution on particle size. During the experimen-
tal process, the DC voltage and the concentration of glucose
buffer are fixed at 7 V and 0.2 M, respectively. As for the
Benedict’s solution, it is diluted using deionized water, and the
dilution ratio ranges from 1 to 8. The particle images under dif-
ferent dilution ratios are exhibited in Fig. 9a–c. It is observed
that the dilution ratio negatively affects the particle size.
According to the statistical result given in Fig. 9d, the particle
size declines from 0.793 to 0.477 μm when the dilution ratio
changes from 1 to 8. On the basis of above analyses, the par-
ticle size can be flexibly tuned by changing the DC voltage
and the concentration of Benedict’s solution. And this particle
synthesis experiment successfully proves the feasibility of the
presented approach in efficient micromixing and simultane-
ous microreaction. Moreover, compared with the synthesis
experiments of C ­ u2O in traditional labs (Dong et al. 2001;
Huang et al. 2009), our microfluidic platform is simple and
flexible, and the synthesis period is shortened a lot. Therefore,
this fluid mixing and particle synthesis method is attractive in
diverse applications including biochemical analysis, material
synthesis, and so on.
6 Conclusion
In this paper, we present a novel method for efficient con-
tinuous microfluid mixing and microreaction based on direct
current-induced thermal buoyancy convection in a single
microfluidic unit. The fluids of interest are unevenly heated
using an asymmetrically arranged ITO-made microheater,
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2020) 24:1 Page 11 of 14 1

Fig. 8  a Application of the

presented thermal-based
micromixer for cuprous particle
synthesis. (b–c) SEM images
of the synthesized cuprous
oxide particles at the fixed
glucose buffer concentration
of 0.2 mol/L and different DC
voltages (× 5 k magnification),
the DC voltages in (a–b) are
5 V and 8 V, respectively. d
The particle size distributions
at two different DC voltages. e
The influence of DC voltage on
particle size

leading to the formation of thermal buoyancy convection.
Microfluids then can be effectively mixed by the convection
flow-induced microvortices. The temperature distribution
and the natural convection flow in the microchip are first
studied and characterized, which can be flexibly adjusted by
changing the DC voltage. Then the mixing performance of
the presented micromixer is investigated by joint numerical
and experimental analyses. The DC voltage positively affects
the mixing performance. However, the flow rate has a nega-
tive effect on mixing efficiency. Specifically, at a fixed flow
rate of 300 nL/s, the mixing efficiency improves from 13.5
to 97.3% as the voltage ranges from 0 to 8 V. And the mixing
performance decreases from 93.4 to 74.4% as the flow rate
rises from 300 to 900 nL/s at U = 6 V. Finally, to demonstrate
this design’s capability for simultaneously conducting reac-
tions, nano-sized C ­ u2O microparticles are synthesized by
effectively mixing the Benedict’s solution and glucose buffer
in this microdevice. Remarkably, the particle size can be
tuned by changing the DC voltage and the concentration of
Benedict’s solution. The particle size decreases from 0.967
to 0.680 μm as the DC voltage rises from 5 to 8 V. When the
DC voltage and the concentration of glucose buffer are fixed
at 7 V and 0.2 M, respectively, the particle size declines
from 0.793 to 0.477 μm as the dilution ratio of Benedict’s
solution improves from 1 to 8. Therefore, this thermal-based
micromixer can be attractive for diverse applications because
of its simplicity, high throughput and flexibility.

13
1 Page 12 of 14
Fig. 9  (a–c) SEM images of the
­Cu2O particles under different
dilution ratios of Benedict’s
solution (× 5 k magnification).
Scale bar, 2 μm. d Influence of
the dilution ratio of Benedict’s
solution on particle size
Acknowledgements This work is financially supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (No.11672095, No.11872165,
No. 11702075, No. 11702035). Self-Planned Task (SKLRS201803B)
of State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System (HIT).
References
Ahrberg CD, Manz A, Chung BG (2016) Polymerase chain reaction
in microfluidic devices. Lab Chip 16:3866–3884. https​://doi.
org/10.1039/c6lc0​0984k​
Akimoto K, Ishizuka S, Yanagita M, Nawa Y, Paul GK, Sakurai T
(2006) Thin film deposition of Cu2O and application for solar
cells. Sol Energy 80:715–722. https​://doi.org/10.1016/j.solen​
er.2005.10.012
Britton J, Raston CL (2017) Multi-step continuous-flow synthesis.
Chem Soc Rev 46:1250–1271. https​://doi.org/10.1039/c6cs0​
0830e​
Cao J, Cheng P, Hong FJ (2007) A numerical study of an electrother-
mal vortex enhanced micromixer. Microfluid Nanofluid 5:13–21.
https​://doi.org/10.1007/s1040​4-007-0201-4
Chang C-C, Yang R-J (2009) Chaotic mixing in electro-osmotic flows
driven by spatiotemporal surface charge modulation. Phys Fluids
21:052004. https​://doi.org/10.1063/1.31391​62
Chen JK, Yang RJ (2007) Electroosmotic flow mixing in zigzag micro-
channels. Electrophoresis 28:975–983. https​://doi.org/10.1002/
elps.20060​0470
Chen JK, Weng CN, Yang RJ (2009) Assessment of three AC electroos-
motic flow protocols for mixing in microfluidic channel. Lab Chip
9:1267–1273. https​://doi.org/10.1039/b8195​47a
Cortes-Quiroz CA, Azarbadegan A, Zangeneh M (2017) Effect of chan-
nel aspect ratio of 3-D T-mixer on flow patterns and convective
mixing for a wide range of Reynolds number. Sens Actuators B
239:1153–1176. https​://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2016.08.116
13
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2020) 24:1
Cui W et al (2016) Localized ultrahigh frequency acoustic fields
induced micro-vortices for submilliseconds microfluidic mixing.
Appl Phys Lett 109:253503. https​://doi.org/10.1063/1.49724​84
Deng Y, Zhou T, Liu Z, Wu Y, Qian S, Korvink JG (2018) Topology
optimization of electrode patterns for electroosmotic micromixer.
Int J Heat Mass Transf 126:1299–1315. https​://doi.org/10.1016/j.
ijhea​tmass​trans​fer.2018.06.065
Dong Y, Li Y, Wang C, Cui A, Deng Z (2001) Preparation of
Cuprous Oxide Particles of Different Crystallinity. J Colloid
Interface Sci 243:85–89. https​://doi.org/10.1006/jcis.2001.7857
Feng Q, Sun J, Jiang X (2016) Microfluidics-mediated assembly
of functional nanoparticles for cancer-related pharmaceu-
tical applications. Nanoscale 8:12430–12443. https​: //doi.
org/10.1039/c5nr0​7964k​
Feng X et al (2019) Effect of vortex on mass transport and mixing
in microcapillary channels. Chem Eng J 362:442–452. https​://
doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2019.01.055
Flores-Flores E et al (2015) Trapping and manipulation of micro-
particles using laser-induced convection currents and photo-
phoresis. Biomed Optics Express 6:4079–4087. https​: //doi.
org/10.1364/BOE.6.00407​9
Ftouni J, Penhoat M, Addad A, Payen E, Rolando C, Girardon JS
(2012) Highly controlled synthesis of nanometric gold parti-
cles by citrate reduction using the short mixing, heating and
quenching times achievable in a microfluidic device. Nanoscale
4:4450–4454. https​://doi.org/10.1039/c2nr1​1666a​
Fu L-M, Ju W-J, Tsai C-H, Hou H-H, Yang R-J, Wang Y-N (2013)
Chaotic vortex micromixer utilizing gas pressure driving force.
Chem Eng J 214:1–7. https​://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2012.10.032
Harnett CK, Templeton J, Dunphy-Guzman KA, Senousy YM,
Kanouff MP (2008) Model based design of a microfluidic mixer
driven by induced charge electroosmosis. Lab Chip 8:565–572.
https​://doi.org/10.1039/b7174​16k
Huang L, Peng F, Yu H, Wang H (2009) Preparation of cuprous
oxides with different sizes and their behaviors of adsorption,
visible-light driven photocatalysis and photocorrosion. Solid
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2020) 24:1
State Sci 11:129–138. https​://doi.org/10.1016/j.solid​state​scien​
ces.2008.04.013
Jain M, Yeung A, Nandakumar K (2009) Induced charge electro
osmotic mixer: Obstacle shape optimization. Biomicrofluidics
3:22413. https​://doi.org/10.1063/1.31672​79
Kang HW, Leem J, Yoon SY, Sung HJ (2014) Continuous synthesis
of zinc oxide nanoparticles in a microfluidic system for photovol-
taic application. Nanoscale 6:2840–2846. https:​ //doi.org/10.1039/
c3nr0​6141h​
Kang Z, Chen J, Wu SY, Chen K, Kong SK, Yong KT, Ho HP (2015)
Trapping and assembling of particles and live cells on large-scale
random gold nano-island substrates. Sci Rep 5:9978. https​://doi.
org/10.1038/srep0​9978
Kim SJ, Wang F, Burns MA, Kurabayashi K (2009) Temperature-pro-
grammed natural convection for micromixing and biochemical
reaction in a single microfluidic chamber. Anal Chem 81:4510–
4516. https​://doi.org/10.1021/ac900​512x
Kim J, Kwon Y, Lee H (2013) Metal ion-assisted reshaping of Cu2O
nanocrystals for catalytic applications. J Mater Chem A 1:14183.
https​://doi.org/10.1039/c3ta1​3182c​
Kulkarni JA, Tam YYC, Chen S, Tam YK, Zaifman J, Cullis PR, Bis-
was S (2017) Rapid synthesis of lipid nanoparticles containing
hydrophobic inorganic nanoparticles. Nanoscale 9:13600–13609.
https​://doi.org/10.1039/c7nr0​3272b​
Kwon Y, Soon A, Han H, Lee H (2015) Shape effects of cuprous oxide
particles on stability in water and photocatalytic water splitting.
J Mater Chem A 3:156–162. https​://doi.org/10.1039/c4ta0​4863f​
Lam YC, Chen X, Yang C (2005) Depthwise averaging approach to
cross-stream mixing in a pressure-driven microchannel flow.
Microfluid Nanofluid 1:218–226. https​://doi.org/10.1007/s1040​
4-004-0013-8
Lee S, Liang CW, Martin LW (2011) Synthesis, control, and characteri-
zation of surface properties of Cu(2)O nanostructures. ACS Nano
5:3736–3743. https​://doi.org/10.1021/nn200​1933
Lim CY, Lam YC, Yang C (2010) Mixing enhancement in microfluidic
channel with a constriction under periodic electro-osmotic flow.
Biomicrofluidics 4:14101. https​://doi.org/10.1063/1.32797​90
Liu Z, Lu Y, Yang B, Luo G (2011) Controllable Preparation of
Poly(butyl acrylate) by Suspension Polymerization in a Coaxial
Capillary Microreactor. Ind Eng Chem Res 50:11853–11862.
https​://doi.org/10.1021/ie201​497b
Liu Y, Deng Y, Zhang P, Liu Z, Wu Y (2013) Experimental investiga-
tion of passive micromixers conceptual design using the layout
optimization method. J Micromech Microeng 23:075002. https​://
doi.org/10.1088/0960-1317/23/7/07500​2
Loucaides N, Ramos A, Georghiou GE (2012) Configurable AC elec-
troosmotic pumping and mixing. Microelectron Eng 90:47–50.
https​://doi.org/10.1016/j.mee.2011.04.007
Lu Y et al (2018) On-chip acoustic mixer integration of electro-micro-
fluidics towards in situ and efficient mixing in droplets. Micro-
fluidics Nanofluidics. https:​ //doi.org/10.1007/s10404​ -018-2169-7
Mallea RT, Bolopion A, Beugnot J-C, Lambert P, Gauthier M (2017)
Laser-Induced Thermocapillary Convective Flows: a New
Approach for Noncontact Actuation at Microscale at the Fluid/
Gas Interface. IEEE/ASME Trans Mechatron 22:693–704. https​
://doi.org/10.1109/tmech​.2016.26398​21
Miyakawa M, Hiyoshi N, Nishioka M, Koda H, Sato K, Miyazawa A,
Suzuki TM (2014) Continuous syntheses of Pd@Pt and Cu@Ag
core-shell nanoparticles using microwave-assisted core particle
formation coupled with galvanic metal displacement. Nanoscale
6:8720–8725. https​://doi.org/10.1039/c4nr0​0118d​
Ng WY, Goh S, Lam YC, Yang C, Rodriguez I (2009) DC-biased
AC-electroosmotic and AC-electrothermal flow mixing in micro-
channels. Lab Chip 9:802–809. https:​ //doi.org/10.1039/b81363​ 9d
Nian J-N, Hu C-C, Teng H (2008) Electrodeposited p-type Cu2O for
H2 evolution from photoelectrolysis of water under visible light
Page 13 of 14 1
illumination. International J Hydrog Energy 33:2897–2903. https​
://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhyd​ene.2008.03.052
Pan Y-J, Ren C-M, Yang R-J (2007) Electrokinetic flow focusing and
valveless switching integrated with electrokinetic instability for
mixing enhancement. J Micromech Microeng 17:820–827. https​
://doi.org/10.1088/0960-1317/17/4/020
Pradhan TK, Panigrahi PK (2015) Thermocapillary convection
inside a stationary sessile water droplet on a horizontal surface
with an imposed temperature gradient. Exp Fluids. https​://doi.
org/10.1007/s0034​8-015-2051-2
Qu H et al (2017) On-chip integrated multiple microelectromechanical
resonators to enable the local heating, mixing and viscosity sens-
ing for chemical reactions in a droplet. Sens Actuators B: Chem
248:280–287. https​://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2017.03.173
Roy T, Sinha A, Chakraborty S, Ganguly R, Puri IK (2009) Mag-
netic microsphere-based mixers for microdroplets. Phys Fluids
21:027101. https​://doi.org/10.1063/1.30726​02
Santana HS, Silva JL, Taranto OP (2019) Optimization of micromixer
with triangular baffles for chemical process in millidevices. Sens
Actuators B: Chem 281:191–203. https​: //doi.org/10.1016/j.
snb.2018.10.089
Sugioka H (2010) Chaotic mixer using electro-osmosis at finite Peclet
number. Phys Rev E 81:036306. https​://doi.org/10.1103/PhysR​
evE.81.03630​6
Vela E, Hafez M, Régnier S (2009) Laser-induced thermocapillary
convection for mesoscale manipulation. Int J Optomechatronics
3:289–302. https​://doi.org/10.1080/15599​61090​33894​77
Velez-Cordero JR, Velazquez-Benitez AM, Hernandez-Cordero J
(2014) Thermocapillary flow in glass tubes coated with pho-
toresponsive layers. Langmuirs 30:5326–5336. https ​ : //doi.
org/10.1021/la404​221p
Wang S, Huang X, Yang C (2011) Mixing enhancement for high vis-
cous fluids in a microfluidic chamber. Lab Chip 11:2081–2087.
https​://doi.org/10.1039/c0lc0​0695e​
Wang S, Huang X, Yang C (2012) Microfluidic bubble genera-
tion by acoustic field for mixing enhancement. J Heat Transfer
134:051014. https​://doi.org/10.1115/1.40057​05
Wang Z, Zhang H, Yang Y, Qu H, Han Z, Pang W, Duan X (2017)
Wireless Controlled Local Heating and Mixing Multiple Drop-
lets Using Micro-Fabricated Resonator Array for Micro-Reac-
tor Applications. IEEE Access 5:25987–25992. https​: //doi.
org/10.1109/acces​s.2017.27662​70
Wang H, Shi L, Zhou T, Xu C, Deng Y (2018) A novel passive micro-
mixer with modified asymmetric lateral wall structures. Asia-Pac
J Chem Eng 13:e2202. https​://doi.org/10.1002/apj.2202
Winterer F, Maier CM, Pernpeintner C, Lohmuller T (2018) Optoflu-
idic transport and manipulation of plasmonic nanoparticles by
thermocapillary convection. Soft Matter 14:628–634. https​://doi.
org/10.1039/c7sm0​1863k​
Wu Z, Li D (2007) Mixing and flow regulating by induced-charge
electrokinetic flow in a microchannel with a pair of conduct-
ing triangle hurdles. Microfluid Nanofluid 5:65–76. https​://doi.
org/10.1007/s1040​4-007-0227-7
Yang J et al (2018) Size-tunable capture of mesoscopic matters using
thermocapillary vortex. Appl Phys Lett 113:131602. https​://doi.
org/10.1063/1.50378​62
Yesiloz G, Boybay MS, Ren CL (2017) Effective thermo-capillary mix-
ing in droplet microfluidics integrated with a microwave heater.
Anal Chem 89:1978–1984. https​://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analc​
hem.6b045​20
Yu N et al (2018) Integrated obstacle microstructures for gas-liquid
separation and flow switching in microfluidic networks. Sens
Actuators B: Chem 256:735–743. https​: //doi.org/10.1016/j.
snb.2017.09.207
13
1 Page 14 of 14
Zhang F, Chen H, Chen B, Wu J (2016) Alternating current electrother-
mal micromixer with thin film resistive heaters. Adv Mech Eng
8:168781401664626. https:​ //doi.org/10.1177/168781​ 40166​ 46264​
Zhang K, Ren Y, Hou L, Feng X, Chen X, Jiang H (2018) An efficient
micromixer actuated by induced-charge electroosmosis using
asymmetrical floating electrodes. Microfluidics Nanofluidics
22:10–12. https​://doi.org/10.1007/s1040​4-018-2153-2
Zhang K, Ren Y, Tao Y, Liu W, Jiang T, Jiang H (2019) Efficient micro/
nanoparticle concentration using direct current-induced thermal
buoyancy convection for multiple liquid media. Anal Chem
91:4457–4465. https​://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analc​hem.8b051​05
13
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (2020) 24:1
Zhao Y, Zhao C, He J, Zhou Y, Yang C (2013) Collective effects
on thermophoresis of colloids: a microfluidic study within the
framework of DLVO theory. Soft Matter 9:7726. https​://doi.
org/10.1039/c3sm2​7720h​
Zheng J, Xing X, Yang J, Shi K, He S (2018) Hybrid optofluidics
and three-dimensional manipulation based on hybrid photo-
thermal waveguides. NPG Asia Mater 10:340–351. https​://doi.
org/10.1038/s4142​7-018-0026-5
Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.