電液體幫浦驅動過程中，伴隨著電解水的產生，一直難以規避；其所帶來的影響即是驅動電極的變質，而導致電液體微幫浦無法長時間運作。因此基於防止電極老化之研究動機，本論文率先提出以不同電極材質或構形，來克服此一棘手問題，而使得電液體微幫浦可以長時間運作，並增加流量。 本研究首先利用微機電系統技術製作了四種不同構形的電液體微幫浦，此四種電液體微幫浦分別為：以氧化銦錫做為幫浦之驅動電極、氧化銦錫與黃金複合式驅動電極、以不同高分子材料保護黃金驅動電極、具三維螺旋微電極之電液體微幫浦。四種不同材質或構形的電液體微幫浦，皆使用無水乙醇為工作液體：前三種電液體微幫浦其可連續驅動無水乙醇的時間，從不超過10分鐘，到大約20分鐘左右，最後可達到至少一小時以上。而至於驅動液體之體積流率方面，前三種微幫浦其驅動無水乙醇體積流率大約為80-360 nl/min，另外具三維式螺旋微電極之微幫浦其體積流率則可達到4.5 μl/min。 文中連帶探討Zeta電位能對電液體微幫浦之流速影響，並以聚對二甲苯與明膠保護黃金驅動電極為例，由實際流速反推，估算出玻璃、聚對二甲苯與明膠微流道壁之Zeta電位能分別為 -181 mV、-1.44 V與 -1.67 V。 本文最後則另以新穎可撓性基板之微機電製程，開發浮於液面上運動之電液體推進器微型船原型。當微電液體推進器施加35 V直流電壓時，其在水面上最大移動速率為10 μm/sec。 The issue of electrolysis occurring during electrohydrodynamic (EHD) micropump operation is always inevitable. Unfortunately, it would influence the stability of electrodes and could not result the EHD micropump in long-term operation. How to prevent the aging of electrodes is important topic. This thesis novelly proposes to deal with this troublesome problem by using different materials and configurations for EHD driving electrodes. This study first uses Microelectromachanical Systems (MEMS) technology to fabricate four different type EHD micropumps. They are Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) as micropump electrodes, utilize gold and ITO as electrodes material of micropump, use different polymer materials to protect the gold electrodes and the EHD micropump with three-dimensional spiral electrodes respectively. These four EHD micropumps all use ethyl alcohol as the working liquid. The operation time of the first three kinds could pump ethyl alcohol up to 10 minutes, 20 minutes, and 1 hour at least. The pumping rate of first three types EHD micropumps is about 80-360 nl/min. Moreover, the pumping rate of EHD micropump with piral electrodes could be up to 4.5 µl/min. This research also discusses the different polymer materials change the surface properties of microchannel and therefore greatly influence the driving velocity of the EHD flow. There is uses various types of polymers, parylene and gelatin, to protect the electrode and alculates the zeta potential of the EHD pumps. The Zeta potentials of three different surfaces (glass, gelatin and parylene) in the EHD microchannel are -181 mV, -1.67 V and -1.44 V respectively. Finally, this thesis demostates using newly flexible MEMS process to develop the prototype of micro-boat with EHD propelled. The maximum velocity of EHD micro-boat floatting on the water is about 10 μm/sec when the DC voltage is 35 V.
