CONTINUOUS MICROPARTICLES SEPARATION USING ELECTROKINETICALLY-DRIVEN FLOW IN A MODIFIED CIRCULAR MICROCHANNEL

The present paper introduce an innovative dielectrophoresis-based microfluidic device in an insulating form by use of round hurdles patterned through the channel for focusing and separation of microparticles. Local nonuniform electric fields are generated due to the existence of obstacle and curvature which produce negative dielectrophoretic forces on the microparticles that are transporting within the proposed microchannel with electrokinetically driven flow. Numerical simulations were used to predict the trajectories of fix sized (i.e. 5, 10 and 15 micrometer) particles, and size-dependent separation of 5, 10 and 15 micrometer particles by adjusting the applied voltages at the inlets. Compared to other microchannel designs that implement geometry modification like obstacle or curvature individually for nonuniform electric fields generation, the developed microchannel offers advantages such as improved controllability of particles motion leads to high efficiency separation, lower requirement of applied voltage which is necessary to avoid Joule heating problem, reduced fouling, and particle adhesion, etc.

Keywords:

Particle separation , Electrokinetic , insulator based dielectrophoresis , rounded hurdle