Microfluidic electrical sorting of particles based on shape in a spiral microchannel |
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| Authors: | John DuBose Xinyu Lu Saurin Patel Shizhi Qian Sang Woo Joo Xiangchun Xuan |
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| Institution: | 1.Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634-0921, USA;2.Institute of Micro/Nanotechnology, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia 23529, USA;3.School of Mechanical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyongsan 712-719, South Korea |
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| Abstract: | Shape is an intrinsic marker of cell cycle, an important factor for identifying a bioparticle, and also a useful indicator of cell state for disease diagnostics. Therefore, shape can be a specific marker in label-free particle and cell separation for various chemical and biological applications. We demonstrate in this work a continuous-flow electrical sorting of spherical and peanut-shaped particles of similar volumes in an asymmetric double-spiral microchannel. It exploits curvature-induced dielectrophoresis to focus particles to a tight stream in the first spiral without any sheath flow and subsequently displace them to shape-dependent flow paths in the second spiral without any external force. We also develop a numerical model to simulate and understand this shape-based particle sorting in spiral microchannels. The predicted particle trajectories agree qualitatively with the experimental observation. |
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