Issue 15, 2017

Solutal and thermal buoyancy effects in self-powered phosphatase micropumps

Abstract

Immobilized enzymes generate net fluid flow when exposed to specific reagents in solution. Thus, they function as self-powered platforms that combine sensing and on-demand fluid pumping. To uncover the mechanism of pumping, we examine the effects of solutal and thermal buoyancy on the behavior of phosphatase-based micropumps, using a series of reactants with known thermodynamic and kinetic parameters. By combining modeling and experiments, we perform the first quantitative comparison of thermal and solutal effects in an enzyme micropump system. Despite the significant exothermicity of the catalyzed reactions, we find that thermal effects play a minimal role in the observed fluid flow. Instead, fluid transport in phosphatase micropumps is governed by the density difference between the reactants and the products of the reaction. This surprising conclusion suggests new design principles for catalytic pumps.

Graphical abstract: Solutal and thermal buoyancy effects in self-powered phosphatase micropumps

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 Jan 2017
Accepted
15 Mar 2017
First published
17 Mar 2017

Soft Matter, 2017,13, 2800-2807

Solutal and thermal buoyancy effects in self-powered phosphatase micropumps

L. Valdez, H. Shum, I. Ortiz-Rivera, A. C. Balazs and A. Sen, Soft Matter, 2017, 13, 2800 DOI: 10.1039/C7SM00022G

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