Effects of obstacles on inertial focusing and separation in sinusoidal channels: An experimental and numerical study

Cha, Haotian; Amiri, Hoseyn A.; Moshafi, Sima; Karimi, Ali Reza; Nikkhah, Ali; Xiangxun, Chen; Ta, Hang T.; Nguyen, Nam‐Trung; Zhang, Jun

doi:10.1016/j.ces.2023.118826

Cited by 14 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…However, the introduced micro-obstacles will increase the flow resistance and require higher bonding strength for microfluidic chips. Accurate single-train focusing can also be obtained in spiral microfluidics by adopting an appropriate channel contraction ( Gou et al, 2020 ) or arranging obstacles ( Cha et al, 2023a ). Introducing asymmetric periodic expansion structures in the spiral channel produces a stable additional vortex-induced lift force, combined with Dean drag force, effectively enhancing the focusing process ( Gou et al, 2020 ) ( Figures 4A, B ).…”

Section: Review On Sheathless Inertial Microfluidic Focusing Technolo...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sheathless inertial particle focusing methods within microfluidic devices: a review

Peng,

Qiang,

Yuan

2024

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.

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The ability to manipulate and focus particles within microscale fluidic environments is crucial to advancing biological, chemical, and medical research. Precise and high-throughput particle focusing is an essential prerequisite for various applications, including cell counting, biomolecular detection, sample sorting, and enhancement of biosensor functionalities. Active and sheath-assisted focusing techniques offer accuracy but necessitate the introduction of external energy fields or additional sheath flows. In contrast, passive focusing methods exploit the inherent fluid dynamics in achieving high-throughput focusing without external actuation. This review analyzes the latest developments in strategies of sheathless inertial focusing, emphasizing inertial and elasto-inertial microfluidic focusing techniques from the channel structure classifications. These methodologies will serve as pivotal benchmarks for the broader application of microfluidic focusing technologies in biological sample manipulation. Then, prospects for future development are also predicted. This paper will assist in the understanding of the design of microfluidic particle focusing devices.

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Section: Review On Sheathless Inertial Microfluidic Focusing Technolo...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sheathless inertial particle focusing methods within microfluidic devices: a review

Peng,

Qiang,

Yuan

2024

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.

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“…Inertial microfluidics has experienced substantial advancements, particularly in the field of channel geometry. − This evolution encompasses a variety of configurations such as straight, curved, and composite channels. − Channels characterized by a spiral configuration are particularly favored owing to their considerable length, optimized spatial organization, and the distinct presence of secondary flow. − Our group initially presented a distinctive system aimed at accomplishing high-throughput particle focusing and separation within a single-layer spiral channel equipped with orderly arranged microbars . This approach was further expanded upon by Ren et al and Wang et al, , who applied this system to effectively sort circulating tumor markers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Throughput Blood Plasma Extraction in a Dimension-Confined Double-Spiral Channel

Shen,

Bai,

Wang

et al. 2023

Anal. Chem.

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Microfluidic technologies enabling the control of secondary flow are essential for the successful separation of blood cells, a process that is beneficial for a wide range of medical research and clinical diagnostics. Herein, we introduce a dimension-confined microfluidic device featuring a double-spiral channel designed to regulate secondary flows, thereby enabling high-throughput isolation of blood for plasma extraction. By integrating a sequence of micro-obstacles within the double-spiral microchannels, the stable and enhanced Dean-like secondary flow across each loop can be generated. This setup consequently prompts particles of varying diameters (3, 7, 10, and 15 μm) to form different focusing states. Crucially, this system is capable of effectively separating blood cells of different sizes with a cell throughput of (2.63–3.36) × 108 cells/min. The concentration of blood cells in outlet 2 increased 3-fold, from 1.46 × 108 to 4.37 × 108, while the number of cells, including platelets, exported from outlets 1 and 3 decreased by a factor of 608. The engineering approach manipulating secondary flow for plasma extraction points to simplicity in fabrication, ease of operation, insensitivity to cell size, high throughput, and separation efficiency, which has potential utility in propelling the development of miniaturized diagnostic devices in the field of biomedical science.

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“…Vortex technology is a passive, high-throughput, and label-free method that relies solely on particle size and physical parameters. , Separated CTCs in this method are intact, pure, and viable for downstream clinical examination. − The processing time for whole blood is short due to optimizing the flow rate and establishing a high-throughput separation mechanism. Additionally, it is cost-effective and automated, requiring no need for a laboratory expert.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Efficiency Inertial Separation of Microparticles Using Elevated Columned Reservoirs and Vortex Technique for Lab-on-a-Chip Applications

Mohamadsharifi,

Hajghassem,

Kalantar

et al. 2023

ACS Omega

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The discovery of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has envisioned an excellent outlook for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Among numerous efforts proposed for CTCs isolation, vortex separation is a well-known method for capturing CTCs from blood due to its applicability, low sample volume requirement, and ability to retain cell viability. It is a label-free, passive, low-cost, and automated method, making it an ideal solution for lab-on-a-chip applications. The previous designs that employed vortex technology have shown reaching high throughput and 70% separation efficiency although it was after three processing cycles which are not desired. Inspired by our earlier design, in this work, we redesigned the chip geometry by elevating the columned reservoir height to capture more particles and consequently reduce particle−particle collision, eventually improving efficiency. So, a height-variable chip with fewer elevated columned reservoirs (ECRs) was employed to isolate 20 μm microparticles representing CTCs from 8 μm microparticles. Also, numerical simulations were conducted to investigate the third axis contribution to the separation mechanism. The new design with ECRs resulted in a 14% increase in average efficiency, reaching ∼80% ± 8.3% in microparticle separation and 61% purity. Moreover, the proposed chip geometry demonstrated more than three times higher capacity in retaining orbiting particles up to 1300 in peak performance without sacrificing efficiency compared to earlier single-layer designs. We came up with an upgraded injection system to facilitate this chip characterization. We also presented an effortless and straightforward approach for purging air bubbles trapped inside the reservoirs to preserve regular chip operation, especially where there is a mismatch between channel and reservoir heights.

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Effects of obstacles on inertial focusing and separation in sinusoidal channels: An experimental and numerical study

Cited by 14 publications

References 56 publications

Sheathless inertial particle focusing methods within microfluidic devices: a review

Sheathless inertial particle focusing methods within microfluidic devices: a review

High-Throughput Blood Plasma Extraction in a Dimension-Confined Double-Spiral Channel

High-Efficiency Inertial Separation of Microparticles Using Elevated Columned Reservoirs and Vortex Technique for Lab-on-a-Chip Applications

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