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US 8,715,480 B2Granted
Electrokinetic pump having capacitive electrodes
AssigneeEksigent Technologies, LLC
InventorsDeon S. Anex, Phillip H. Paul, David W. Neyer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electrokinetic pump achieves high and low flow rates without producing significant gaseous byproducts and without significant evolution of the pump fluid. A first feature of the pump is that the electrodes in the pump are capacitive with a capacitance of at least 10−4 Farads/cm2. A second feature of the pump is that it is configured to maximize the potential across the porous dielectric material. The pump can have either or both features.
Claims19
An electrokinetic engine comprising:
- a pair of porous capacitive electrodes;
- a dielectric material sandwiched between the pair of capacitive electrodes;
- and
- a pump fluid;
- wherein a width of the electrokinetic engine in a first direction is greater than a thickness of the electrokinetic engine in a second direction, and wherein the porous capacitive electrodes and the dielectric material are in a flow-through configuration such that, during operation of the electrokinetic engine, the pump fluid flows in the second direction through both of the electrodes and the dielectric material.
2 more elements
An electrokinetic system comprising:
- an electrokinetic engine including a pair of electrodes, a dielectric material sandwiched between the pair of electrodes, and a pump fluid;
- a power supply;
- and
- a controller, the controller programmed to:
- (a) apply current from the power supply to move the pump fluid through both of the electrodes and the dielectric material;
- and
- (b) stop applying the current from the power supply before a solvent electrolysis process starts in the pump fluid.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.