The Development of Polymeric Devices as Dielectrophoretic Separators and Concentrators

Abstract

Efficient and reliable particle separators and concentrators are needed to support a wide range of analytical functions including pathogen detection, sample preparation, high-throughput particle sorting, and biomedical diagnostics. The advent of lab-on-a-chip devices based on the phenomenon of dielectrophoresis offers advantages that can meet several of the challenges associated with cell sorting and detection. The majority of the devices presented in the scientific literature have used glass-based devices for these applications, but there has been recent activity that indicates that polymer-based devices can operate as effectively as their glass progenitors. Processing and operational advantages motivate the transition from glass and silicon to polymer microdevices: mechanical robustness, economy of scale, ease of thermoforming and mass manufacturing, and the availability of numerous innate chemical polymer compositions for tailoring performance. We present here a summary of the developments toward, and results obtained from, these polymeric dielectrophoretic devices in the selective trapping, concentration, and gated release of a range of biological organisms and particles.

Extraction and Purification of Bioproducts and Nanoparticles using Aqueous Two‐Phase Systems Strategies

“…DEP is the movement of particles in a nonuniform electric field, and it can occur in AC or DC electric fields. DEP has been successfully applied for the manipulation of a wide range of particles: biomolecules [34][35][36][37][38], virus [39][40][41], bacteria [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49], spores [50,51], mammalian cells [52][53][54] and parasites [55][56][57]. DEP offers the possibility of sample concentration and separation in a single step.…”

A novel approach to dielectrophoresis using carbon electrodes

“…An alternative to metal-electrode DEP is insulator-based DEP or iDEP [6][7][8]. In this technique, metal macroelectrodes (for example, extruded wire rods or machined metal plates) are positioned on both ends of an array of insulating microstructures.…”

Performance characterization of an insulator‐based dielectrophoretic microdevice

“…DEP is a nonlinear effect of the electric field applied along the channel and it occurs through the interactions of the particle's polarization with the applied electric field [1, 2]. Applications of DEP in microsystems have demonstrated the capabilities of this technique for the manipulation and concentration of a wide range of particles: biomolecules [3-10], viruses [11][12][13][14][15][16], bacteria [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26], spores [25,27], mammalian cells [28][29][30][31], inert nano-and microparticles [20,[32][33][34][35], and parasites [36][37][38][39].…”

“…In iDEP, the nonuniform electric field is obtained by employing arrays of insulating structures and only two electrodes [7,8,20,21,26,27,35,[47][48][49]. The electric field is applied along an array of microinsulating structures; the presence of the insulating structures while the electric field is being applied generates zones of higher and lower electric field intensity throughout the array, creating dielectrophoretic "traps".…”