Other

The Ohio State University

Robbie J Walczak

Francis J Martin

Anthony A Boiarski

Derek James Hansford

A nanopump for pumping small volumes of electrolyte solution under the control of a voltage source is described. The device includes a chamber and a nanopore membrane which partitions the chamber into upstream and downstream regions. When a voltage potential is applied across the membrane, electroosmotic flow through the membrane channels produces a precise-volume flow between the two chamber regions. A method for precise-volume pumping employing the nanopump and a nanopump device for determining the lengths of nucleic acid fragments in an electrolyte solution of different-length fragments are also described.

Nanopump devices and methods

A self-contained delivery device for delivery a selected volume of stored electrolyte solution at selected time intervals is disclosed. The device includes a housing having a delivery port, a chamber containing an upstream supply reservoir for holding a quantity of electrolyte solution, a downstream delivery reservoir for receiving electrolyte solution from the supply reservoir and, disposed between the two reservoirs, a membrane having a plurality of flow-through channels extending between the two reservoirs. A pair of electrodes placed in the chamber on either side of the membrane and controlled by a controller contained within the housing for pumping selected quantities of the electrolyte solution at selected time intervals. The device includes a chamber, and a membrane disposed in said chamber and having a channel extending between an upstream chamber region, where the said channel has a selected minimum cross-sectional dimension in the range between 2 and 100 nm.

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Hilliard, OH, United States of America

Robbie J Walczak