Separations of spherical and disc-shaped polystyrene particles and blood components (red blood cells and platelets) using pinched flow fractionation device with a tilted sidewall and vertical focusing channels (t-PFF-v)

Abstract Shape-based separation capabilities of a novel pinched flow fractionation device with a tilted sidewall and vertical focusing channels (t-PFF-v) were demonstrated for (1) spherical and disc-shaped polystyrene (PS) particles; (2) platelets (PLT) and red blood cells (RBC); and (3) singlet, doublet, and triplet clusters of disc-shaped PS particles. The tilted sidewalls and vertical focusing channels of the t-PFF-v device allowed us to perform enhanced separation of non-spherical particles. Using this t-PFF-v device with a W p (pinched segment width) of 20 μm and 15 μm, not only spherical (diameter of 2 μm) and disc-shaped (thickness of ∼2 μm, diameter of ∼5.0 μm) PS particles but also PLTs and RBCs from diluted blood were well separated with good separation resolutions (R disc,sphere  = 1.40 and R PLT,RBC  = 1.28). Additionally, time-lapse images of flowing particles indicated that both disc-shaped PS particles and RBCs are probably having type I orientation in the pinched segment (i.e., leaning against the tilted sidewalls at the pinched segment). Moreover, we observed streamlines of singlet, doublet, and triplet clustered disc-shaped PS particles, which suggested that these clustered particles could be well separated according to their aspect ratio. The doublet or triplet clustered PS particles are probably lay on the floor and rotated at the pinched segment (type II orientation). We believe that this shape-based separation capability achieved by the t-PFF-v device can be utilized for many application areas, such as medical, biological, material and colloidal sciences.

[1]  K. Dholakia,et al.  Microfluidic sorting in an optical lattice , 2003, Nature.

[2]  Alexander Alexeev,et al.  Hydrodynamic sorting of microparticles by size in ridged microchannels , 2011 .

[3]  A. Alexeev,et al.  Designing microfluidic channel that separates elastic particles upon stiffness , 2009 .

[4]  P. Renaud,et al.  Temperature measurements in microfluidic systems: Heat dissipation of negative dielectrophoresis barriers , 2005, Electrophoresis.

[5]  Alexander Alexeev,et al.  Patterned surfaces segregate compliant microcapsules. , 2007, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[6]  David J. Schiffrin,et al.  AFM study of surface finish improvement by ultrasound in the anisotropic etching of Si in KOH for micromachining applications , 1997 .

[7]  Abhishek Jain,et al.  Particle dispersion and separation resolution of pinched flow fractionation. , 2008, Analytical chemistry.

[8]  Andreas Manz,et al.  On-chip free-flow magnetophoresis: continuous flow separation of magnetic particles and agglomerates. , 2004, Analytical chemistry.

[9]  Samir Mitragotri,et al.  Continuous Inertial Focusing and Separation of Particles by Shape , 2012 .

[10]  H. Ji,et al.  Silicon-based microfilters for whole blood cell separation , 2008, Biomedical microdevices.

[11]  Robert H. Austin,et al.  Continuous microfluidic immunomagnetic cell separation , 2004 .

[12]  Thomas Laurell,et al.  Chip integrated strategies for acoustic separation and manipulation of cells and particles. , 2007, Chemical Society reviews.

[13]  Minoru Seki,et al.  Observation of nonspherical particle behaviors for continuous shape-based separation using hydrodynamic filtration. , 2011, Biomicrofluidics.

[14]  A. Keller,et al.  Preparation of monodisperse ellipsoidal polystyrene particles , 1993 .

[15]  B. Lüderitz,et al.  Changes in platelet size and count in unstable angina compared to stable angina or non-cardiac chest pain. , 1998, European heart journal.

[16]  D. Gossett,et al.  Particle focusing mechanisms in curving confined flows. , 2009, Analytical chemistry.

[17]  R. Verberg,et al.  Motion of compliant capsules on corrugated surfaces: A means of sorting by mechanical properties , 2006 .

[18]  Shashi Ranjan,et al.  Rotational separation of non-spherical bioparticles using I-shaped pillar arrays in a microfluidic device , 2013, Nature Communications.

[19]  M. Yamada,et al.  Pinched flow fractionation: continuous size separation of particles utilizing a laminar flow profile in a pinched microchannel. , 2004, Analytical chemistry.

[20]  Sungyoung Choi,et al.  Microfluidic system for dielectrophoretic separation based on a trapezoidal electrode array. , 2005, Lab on a chip.

[21]  Mary Louise Turgeon,et al.  Clinical Hematology: Theory and Procedures , 1988 .

[22]  S. Mitragotri,et al.  Making polymeric micro- and nanoparticles of complex shapes , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[23]  K. Rola,et al.  45° micromirrors fabricated by silicon anisotropic etching in KOH solutions saturated with alcohols , 2011, 2011 International Students and Young Scientists Workshop "Photonics and Microsystems".

[24]  R. Verberg,et al.  Designing a simple ratcheting system to sort microcapsules by mechanical properties. , 2006, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[25]  Hyun Woo Nho,et al.  Enhanced separation of colloidal particles in an AsPFF device with a tilted sidewall and vertical focusing channels (t-AsPFF-v). , 2013, Lab on a chip.

[26]  M. Yamada,et al.  Continuous particle separation in a microchannel having asymmetrically arranged multiple branches. , 2005, Lab on a chip.

[27]  Robert H. Austin,et al.  Hydrodynamic metamaterials: Microfabricated arrays to steer, refract, and focus streams of biomaterials , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[28]  J M Paulus,et al.  Platelet size in man. , 1975, Blood.

[29]  A. Bhagat,et al.  Continuous particle separation in spiral microchannels using Dean flows and differential migration. , 2008, Lab on a chip.

[30]  R. Tompkins,et al.  Continuous inertial focusing, ordering, and separation of particles in microchannels , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[31]  Nicole Pamme,et al.  Magnetism and microfluidics. , 2006, Lab on a chip.

[32]  Robert H. Davis,et al.  Hydrodynamic separation of particles using pinched‐flow fractionation , 2013 .

[33]  Kohei Ogawa,et al.  Feasibility study on concentration of slurry and classification of contained particles by microchannel , 2004 .

[34]  J. Sturm,et al.  Continuous Particle Separation Through Deterministic Lateral Displacement , 2004, Science.

[35]  M. Yamada,et al.  Hydrodynamic filtration for on-chip particle concentration and classification utilizing microfluidics. , 2005, Lab on a chip.

[36]  Hyun Woo Nho,et al.  Redesigned t-PFF-v device fabricated with one-step anisotropic chemical wet etching process: enhanced separation efficiency for colloidal particles in continuous-mode , 2017 .

[37]  Wojciech Strojny,et al.  Stiffness of normal and pathological erythrocytes studied by means of atomic force microscopy. , 2006, Journal of biochemical and biophysical methods.

[38]  Chulhee Choi,et al.  Continuous blood cell separation by hydrophoretic filtration. , 2007, Lab on a chip.

[39]  Sungyoung Choi,et al.  Continuous hydrophoretic separation and sizing of microparticles using slanted obstacles in a microchannel. , 2007, Lab on a chip.