Tunable membrane-less dielectrophoretic microfiltration by crossing interdigitated electrodes

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Ruyssen, Nicolas, Oliva, Bastien, Challier, Lylian, Noël, Vincent, Rotenberg, Benjamin
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866912315165638656
author Ruyssen, Nicolas
Oliva, Bastien
Challier, Lylian
Noël, Vincent
Rotenberg, Benjamin
author_facet Ruyssen, Nicolas
Oliva, Bastien
Challier, Lylian
Noël, Vincent
Rotenberg, Benjamin
contents Separation is a crucial step in the analysis of living microparticles. In particular, the selective microseparation of phytoplankton by size and shape remains an open problem, even though these criteria are essential for their gender and/or species identification. However, microseparation devices necessitate physical membranes which complicate their fabrication, reduce the sample flow rate and can cause unwanted particle clogging. Recent advances in microfabrication such as High Precision Capillary Printing allow to rapidly build electrode patterns over wide areas. In this study, we introduce a new concept of membrane-less dielectrophoretic (DEP) microseparation suitable for large scale microfabrication processes. The proposed design involves two pairs of interdigitated electrodes at the top and the bottom of a microfluidic channel. We use finite-element calculations to analyse how the DEP force field throughout the channel, as well as the resulting trajectories of particles depend on the geometry of the system, on the physical properties of the particles and suspending medium and on the imposed voltage and flow rates. We numerically show that in the negative DEP regime, particles are focused in the channel mid-planes and that virtual pillars array leads either to their trapping at specific stagnation points, or to their focusing along specific lines, depending on their dielectrophoretic mobility. Simulations allow to understand how particles can be captured and to quantify the particle separation conditions by introducing a critical dielectrophoretic mobility. We further illustrate the principle of membrane-less dielectrophoretic microseparation using the proposed setup, by considering the separation of a binary mixture of polystyrene particles with different diameters, and validate it experimentally.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_15037
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tunable membrane-less dielectrophoretic microfiltration by crossing interdigitated electrodes
Ruyssen, Nicolas
Oliva, Bastien
Challier, Lylian
Noël, Vincent
Rotenberg, Benjamin
Applied Physics
Separation is a crucial step in the analysis of living microparticles. In particular, the selective microseparation of phytoplankton by size and shape remains an open problem, even though these criteria are essential for their gender and/or species identification. However, microseparation devices necessitate physical membranes which complicate their fabrication, reduce the sample flow rate and can cause unwanted particle clogging. Recent advances in microfabrication such as High Precision Capillary Printing allow to rapidly build electrode patterns over wide areas. In this study, we introduce a new concept of membrane-less dielectrophoretic (DEP) microseparation suitable for large scale microfabrication processes. The proposed design involves two pairs of interdigitated electrodes at the top and the bottom of a microfluidic channel. We use finite-element calculations to analyse how the DEP force field throughout the channel, as well as the resulting trajectories of particles depend on the geometry of the system, on the physical properties of the particles and suspending medium and on the imposed voltage and flow rates. We numerically show that in the negative DEP regime, particles are focused in the channel mid-planes and that virtual pillars array leads either to their trapping at specific stagnation points, or to their focusing along specific lines, depending on their dielectrophoretic mobility. Simulations allow to understand how particles can be captured and to quantify the particle separation conditions by introducing a critical dielectrophoretic mobility. We further illustrate the principle of membrane-less dielectrophoretic microseparation using the proposed setup, by considering the separation of a binary mixture of polystyrene particles with different diameters, and validate it experimentally.
title Tunable membrane-less dielectrophoretic microfiltration by crossing interdigitated electrodes
topic Applied Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.15037