Acoustic projection by electro-osmosis.

Electro-osmosis (EO) is a non-traditional pumping and transduction mechanism with the ability to project acoustic energy in fluids. This investigation experimentally validates the influence of zeta potential, a well-studied physical characteristic used for quantifying the efficacy of an EO pump, on generation of sound pressure level. Acoustic signals of discrete frequencies were observed from 130 Hz to over 150 kHz. EO-type projectors are an attractive technology in that it does not contain moving parts, can be fabricated using a variety of materials, is intrinsically resilient to effects of hydrostatic pressure, and may be designed on the micro-electromechanical system scale.