Geometry-Dependent Efficiency of Dean-Flow Affected Lateral Particle Focusing and Separation in Periodically Inhomogeneous Microfluidic Channels

• Main Authors: Bányai, A. (Author), Fürjes, P. (Author), Tóth, E.L (Author), Varga, M. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI 2022
• Subjects: Biochips; Blood; cell manipulation; Cell manipulation; computational fluid dynamics; Computational fluid dynamics; Computational geometry; dean flow; Dean flows; Focusing; Focusing phenomenons; hydrodynamic lift; Hydrodynamic lifts; Hydrodynamics; microfluidics; Microfluidics; Microfluidics channels; Molecular biology; Particle focusing; Particle separation; Particle size; Particulate suspensions; Passive methods; Sample preparation; Screening; Suspensions (fluids)
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 In this study, inertial focusing phenomenon was investigated, which can be used as a passive method for sample preparation and target manipulation in case of particulate suspensions. Asymmetric channel geometry was designed to apply additional inertial forces besides lift forces to promote laterally ordered particles to achieve sheathless focusing or size-dependent sorting. The evolving hydrodynamic forces were tailored with altered channel parameters (width and height), and different flow rates, to get a better understanding of smaller beads’ lateral migration. Fluores-cent beads (with the diameter of 4.8 µm and 15.8 µm) were used to distinguish the focusing position in continuous flow, and experimental results were compared to in silico models for particle move-ment prediction, made in COMSOL Multiphysics. The focusing behaviour of the applied microflu-idic system was mainly characterised for particle size in the range close to blood cells and bacteria. © 2022 by the authors. Li-censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.