Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research
Title
High-Throughput, Single-Stream Microparticle Focusing Using a Microchannel with Asymmetric Sharp Corners
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 10-2014
Abstract
A new microfluidic device for fast and high-throughput particle focusing is reported. The particle focusing is based on the combination of inertial lift force effect and centrifugal force effect generated in a microchannel with a series of repeated asymmetric sharp corners on one side of the channel wall. The inertial lift force induces two focused particle streams in the microchannel, and the centrifugal force generated at the sharp corner structures tends to drive the particles laterally away from the corner. With the use of a series of repeated asymmetric sharp corner structures, a single and highly focused particle stream was achieved near the straight channel wall at a wide range of flow rate. In comparison with other hydrodynamic particle focusing methods, this method is less sensitive to the flow rate and can work at a higher flow rate (up to 700 μL/min) and Reynolds number (Re = 129.5). With its simple structure and operation, and high throughput, this method can be potentially used in particle focusing processes in a variety of lab-on-a-chip applications.
Publication Title
Microfluidics and nanofludicis
Volume
17
Issue
4
First Page
639
Last Page
646
Recommended Citation
Fan, Liang-liang; Han, Yu; He, Xu-Kun; Zhao, Liang; and Zhe, Jiang, "High-Throughput, Single-Stream Microparticle Focusing Using a Microchannel with Asymmetric Sharp Corners" (2014). Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research. 89.
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/mechanical_ideas/89