The automatic and high‐throughput purification and enrichment of microalgae cells using deterministic lateral displacement arrays with different post shapes

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Microalgae is an important natural resource, which has been used in various fields such as health care, chemical industry, clean energy, and environmental protection. However, microalgae samples are prone to be contaminated by bacteria, impurities, or other hybrid microalgae species. Enrichment and purification must be carried out before further research and utilization.RESULT: Herein, a microfluidic microalgae enrichment and purification system based on the principle of deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) was proposed. Two different shapes of micro-post, circular and triangular, were designed. The performance of the two chips was analyzed from many aspects, such as stability, throughput, recovery efficiency, purity, and enrichment factor. Using Platymonas cells as the samples, enrichment and purification were performed with the two chips. Experimental investigations revealed that the triangular-shaped chip has a better performance than circular-shaped chip; the recovery efficiency of Platymonas cells of the triangular-shaped chip was 85.7%, the purity was 89.4%, and the maximum throughput was 500 ∼L/ min, the enrichment factor was 92.CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first time that DLD technology has been applied to the enrichment and purification of microalgae cells. In addition, the performance of different chips was discussed. Those findings should make a driving contribution to the enrichment and purification of microalgae, DLD technology, and the utilization of microalgae resources.

A Perturbed Asymmetrical Y-TypeSheathless Chip for Particle Control Based on Adjustable Tilted-Angle Traveling Surface Acoustic Waves (ataTSAWs)

“…Each micropillar was an equilateral triangle with a side length of 30 µm. Yanjuan Wang et al [ 38 ] designed two different shapes of micropillars, circular and triangular. The performance of the two chips was analyzed in terms of stability, flux, recovery efficiency, purity, and enrichment coefficient.…”

Geometric structure design of passive label-free microfluidic systems for biological micro-object separation

“…b Adjusted pillar gaps of a DLD array 63 . c Triangular array for microalgae enrichment and purification 72 . d I-shaped, T-shaped, and L-shaped rotation-induced DLD separation 15 .…”

“…Wang et al fabricated a triangular DLD array and a circular array for microalgae enrichment and purification for the first time and revealed that the triangular post array has a better performance over the circular array (Fig. 2c ) 72 . Rectangular, L-shaped, and I-shaped pillars have also been well studied by both numerical and experimental methods, showing an even greater decrease in critical diameter 15 , 73 – 75 .…”

“…cells collected at the central outlet exceeds 85%, with a high maximum throughput of 200 μl/min. Later, the same group designed and fabricated a mirrored triangular microarray for the enrichment and purification of microalgae cells 72 . These authors showed that the triangular post array outperforms the conventional circular array with a maximum flow rate of 500 μl/min.…”

“…Arrays with different pillar shapes can be cascaded to achieve better separation performance. Wang et al developed a device by connecting a triangular pillar array to a circular array 72 . This device promotes the efficiency of microalgae separation.…”