Electro-osmotic flow is commonly used in microfluidic devices, soil analysis and processing, and chemical analysis, all of which routinely involve systems with highly charged surfaces, often of oxides.  One example is capillary electrophoresis, in which electric fields are used to separate chemicals according to their electrophoretic mobility by applying an electric field to a narrow capillary, usually made of silica.  In electrophoretic separations, the electroosmotic flow affects the elution time of the analytes.
Electro-osmotic flow is actuated in a FlowFET to electronically control fluid flow through a junction.
It is projected that micro fluidic devices utilizing electroosmotic flow will have applications in medical research. Once controlling this flow is better understood and implemented, the ability to separate fluids on the atomic level will be a vital component for drug dischargers. Mixing fluids at the micro scale is currently troublesome. It is believed that electrically controlling fluids will be the method in which small fluids are mixed.
A controversial use of electro-osmotic systems is the control rising damp in the walls of buildings. While there is little evidence to suggest that these systems can be useful in moving salts in walls, such systems are claimed to be especially effective in structures with very thick walls.
However some claim that there is no scientific base for those systems, and cite several examples for their failure.
Electro-osmosis can also be used for self-pumping pores powered by chemical reactions rather than electric fields. This approach, using , has been demonstrated and modeled with the Nernst-Planck-Stokes equations.