Continuous manipulation and separation of particles using combined obstacle‐ and curvature‐induced direct current dielectrophoresis

Abstract

G. (2013). Continuous manipulation and separation of particles using combined obstacle-and curvature-induced direct current dielectrophoresis. Electrophoresis, 34 (7), 952-960.Continuous manipulation and separation of particles using combined obstacle-and curvature-induced direct current dielectrophoresis AbstractThis paper presents a novel dielectrophoresis-based microfluidic device incorporating round hurdles within an S-shaped microchannel for continuous manipulation and separation of microparticles. Local nonuniform electric fields are generated due to the combined effects of obstacle and curvature, which in turn induce negative dielectrophoresis forces exerting on the particle that transport throughout the microchannel electrokinetically. Experiments were conducted to demonstrate the controlled trajectories of fix-sized (i.e. 10 or 15x μm) polystyrene particles, and size-dependent separation of 10 and 15 μm particles by adjusting the applied voltages at the inlet and outlets. Numerical simulations were also performed to predict the particle trajectories, which showed reasonable agreement with experimentally observed results. Compared to other microchannel designs that make use of either obstacle or curvature individually for inhomogeneous electric fields, the developed microchannel offers advantages such as improved controllability of particle motion, lower requirement of applied voltage, reduced fouling, and particle adhesion, etc. AbstractThis paper presents a novel dielectrophoresis (DEP)-based microfluidic device incorporating round hurdles within an S-shaped microchannel for continuous manipulation and separation of microparticles. Local nonuniform electric fields are generated due to the combined effects of obstacle and curvature, which in turn induce negative DEP forces exerting on the particle that transport throughout the microchannel electrokinetically. Experiments were conducted to demonstrate the controlled trajectories of fix-sized (i.e. 10 or 15 m) polystyrene (PS) particles, and size-dependent separation of 10 and 15 m particles by adjusting the applied voltages at the inlet and outlets. Numerical simulations were also performed to predict the particle trajectories, which showed reasonable agreement with experimentally observed results. Compared to other microchannel designs that make use of either obstacle or curvature individually for inhomogeneous electric fields, the developed microchannel offers advantages such as improved controllability of particle motion, lower requirement of applied voltage, reduced fouling and particle adhesion, etc.

Dielectrophoretic separation of micron and submicron particles: A review

“…However, there is a restriction on the channel length, and it is limited to 10 mm for iDEP device . Li et al have proposed a DEP microdevice consisting of several round obstacles in a curved (S‐shaped) microchannel for continuous separation of micron sized PS particles. The metal electrodes were immersed at the inlet and outlet reservoirs to create a nonuniform electric field in the device.…”

Inertial particle separation by differential equilibrium positions in a symmetrical serpentine micro-channel

“…According to the manipulation force, particle separation can be categorized as active and passive techniques. Active techniques depend on external force fields89101112131415. The input flow rate and throughput are rather low because target particles need a long residence time to be exposed to the force field.…”

Dielectrophoretic separation of bioparticles in microdevices: A review

“…One such study by Li et al shows the separation of 10 and 15 μm polystyrene particles using semicircular insulating obstacle geometry as shown in the Fig. .…”