Capillarity ion concentration polarization for spontaneous biomolecular preconcentration mechanism

Ionic hydrogel-based ion concentration polarization devices have been demonstrated as platforms to study nanoscale ion transport and to develop engineering applications, such as protein preconcentration and ionic diodes/transistors. Using a microfluidic system composed of a perm-selective hydrogel, we demonstrated a micro/nanofluidic device for the preconcentration of biological samples using a new class of ion concentration polarization mechanism called “capillarity ion concentration polarization” (CICP). Instead of an external electrical voltage source, the capillary force of the perm-selective hydrogel spontaneously generated an ion depletion zone in a microfluidic channel by selectively absorbing counter-ions in a sample solution. We demonstrated a reasonable preconcentration factor (∼100-fold/min) using the CICP device. Although the efficiency was lower than that of conventional electrokinetic ICP operation due to the absence of a drift ion migration, this mechanism was free from the undesirable inst...