In the simplest case, electronically programmable membranes do have one connection channel between two reservoirs, which is controlled by switch on or off electrical potentials. In the current setting two such connecting channels are available with allowing transport of chemicals from one supplying reservoir and one waste reservoir. On-line control via fluorescence detection yields closed loop regulation in real-time.
Electric fields can be used to support compartmentation together with other cell functionalities, like separation and concentration, in microsystems through two main effects: electrophoresis and electro-osmosis. There are many potential application to electronic control of concentration and dilution of biomolecules in microfluidic systems, e.g reaction control in chemical replication systems, as electronic barriers to control diffusion (electronic membranes), controlled dosing of catalytic/initiator chemicals, to adjust systems which are strongly dependent on concentration like the formation of micelles at the critical micelle concentration and so on.
The upper figure shows the concept and the movie the experimental validation for dosing of chemicals inside the fan-flow reactor using controlled EOF driven "artificial membranes".