Herein, we report an electroosmotic pump (EOP) based on a multilayer track-etched polycarbonate (PC) membrane. A remarkable increase of maximum backpressure (198.2–2400 mmH₂O) of a fundamental pump unit was obtained at 0.8 mA, when the number of PC membranes was increased from 1 to 10. Meanwhile, the corresponding flow rate was increased from 80.3 to 111.7 µL/min. Furthermore, multiple pump units were assembled in series to obtain a multistage EOP. For a three-stage EOP (EOP-3), the operating voltage and power can be decreased significantly by 52%–72% under different driving currents, with a minimum power of 26.7 µW. Thus, EOP-3 can run stably over 35 h at a pulse current of 0.1 mA without the generation of gas bubbles. The pump was further integrated into a miniature device, which was successfully used to decrease the blood glucose level of diabetic rats by subcutaneous delivery of fast-acting insulin. This work brings a facile and efficient strategy to enhance the backpressure and lower the operating voltage and power of EOPs, which may find promising applications in drug delivery.

中文翻译：

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用于药物输送的多层径迹蚀刻膜电渗泵

在此，我们报告了一种基于多层径迹蚀刻聚碳酸酯（PC）膜的电渗泵（EOP）。当PC膜的数量从1增加到10时，基本泵单元的最大背压（198.2–2400 mmH ₂ O）在0.8 mA时显着增加。同时，相应的流量从80.3增加到111.7 µL/分钟。此外，多个泵单元串联组装以获得多级EOP。对于三级EOP（EOP-3），在不同驱动电流下，工作电压和功率可显着降低52%~72%，最小功率为26.7 µW。因此，EOP-3可以在0.1 mA的脉冲电流下稳定运行35 h以上，且不产生气泡。该泵进一步集成到一个微型装置中，通过皮下输送速效胰岛素，成功地用于降低糖尿病大鼠的血糖水平。这项工作带来了一种简单有效的策略来增强 EOP 的背压并降低工作电压和功率，这可能会在药物输送中找到有前景的应用。