Virginia Tech. Engineering Science and Mechanics DepartmentPrinceton University. Department of Chemical & Biological EngineeringPrinceton University. Department of Mechanical & Aerospace EngineeringTavakol, BehrouzBozlar, MichaelPunckt, ChristianFroehlicher, GuillaumeStone, Howard A.Aksay, Ilhan A.Holmes, Douglas P.2015-04-202015-04-202014-05-15Tavakol, B., Bozlar, M., Punckt, C., Froehlicher, G., Stone, H. A., Aksay, I. A., & Holmes, D. P. (2014). Buckling of dielectric elastomeric plates for soft, electrically active microfluidic pumps. Soft Matter, 10(27), 4789-4794. doi: 10.1039/C4SM00753K1744-683Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/51720Elastic instabilities, when properly implemented within soft, mechanical structures, can generate advanced functionality. In this work, we use the voltage-induced buckling of thin, flexible plates to pump fluids within a microfluidic channel. The soft electrodes that enable electrical actuation are compatible with fluids, and undergo large, reversible deformations. We quantified the onset of voltage-induced buckling, and measured the flow rate within the microchannel. This embeddable, flexible microfluidic pump will aid in the generation of new stand-alone microfluidic devices that require a tunable flow rate.application/pdfen-USCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 UnportedElastic instabilitiesMicrofluidic technologyNanofluidicsBiomedical fluidic devicesDigital microfluidicsArticle - Refereedhttp://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2014/sm/c4sm00753khttps://doi.org/10.1039/C4SM00753K