In this paper, we present a new approach for ion-enrichment and ion-depletion effect (IEID) in micro-nanofluidic chips without external power source. The method utilizes different reducibility of various electrodes in the weak oxidizing solution to generate the electrochemical potential and then induce IEID at a micro-nano junction. The results show that the average gray values of the micro-nano junction based on Al–Pt, Fe–Pt, and Cu–Pt electrodes increase from 14.7 to 40.2, 27.1, 15.0 after 20 s, and electric currents for Al–Pt, Fe–Pt, and Cu–Pt electrodes are 5.0, 2.9 and 0 nA respectively. Metal cations generating from oxidation–reduction reaction and electroosmotic convection flow are evaluated and their influences to IEID can be neglected in this case. The IEID method based on the electrochemical potential is power-free and weak flow convective that will be beneficial to the integrity of micro-nanofluidic chips and stability of IEID.