We give a general, physical description of ``induced-charge electro-osmosis''
(ICEO), the nonlinear electrokinetic slip at a polarizable surface, in the
context of some new techniques for microfluidic pumping and mixing. ICEO
generalizes ``AC electro-osmosis'' at micro-electrode arrays to various
dielectric and conducting structures in weak DC or AC electric fields. The
basic effect produces micro-vortices to enhance mixing in microfluidic devices,
while various broken symmetries -- controlled potential, irregular shape,
non-uniform surface properties, and field gradients -- can be exploited to
produce streaming flows. Although we emphasize the qualitative picture of ICEO,
we also briefly describe the mathematical theory (for thin double layers and
weak fields) and apply it to a metal cylinder with a dielectric coating in a
suddenly applied DC field.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figs; revsion with more refs, one new fig, and more
emphasis on microfluidic