Bogseth Amanda, Zhou Jian, Papautsky Ian
Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
University of Illinois Cancer Center, Chicago, IL 60612, USA.
Micromachines (Basel). 2020 Mar 10;11(3):287. doi: 10.3390/mi11030287.
Microfluidics has gained a lot of attention for biological sample separation and purification methods over recent years. From many active and passive microfluidic techniques, inertial microfluidics offers a simple and efficient method to demonstrate various biological applications. One prevalent limitation of this method is its lack of tunability for different applications once the microfluidic devices are fabricated. In this work, we develop and characterize a co-flow inertial microfluidic device that is tunable in multiple ways for adaptation to different application requirements. In particular, flow rate, flow rate ratio and output resistance ratio are systematically evaluated for flexibility of the cutoff size of the device and modification of the separation performance post-fabrication. Typically, a mixture of single size particles is used to determine cutoff sizes for the outlets, yet this fails to provide accurate prediction for efficiency and purity for a more complex biological sample. Thus, we use particles with continuous size distribution (2-32 μm) for separation demonstration under conditions of various flow rates, flow rate ratios and resistance ratios. We also use A549 cancer cell line with continuous size distribution (12-27 μm) as an added demonstration. Our results indicate inertial microfluidic devices possess the tunability that offers multiple ways to improve device performance for adaptation to different applications even after the devices are prototyped.
近年来，微流控技术在生物样品分离和纯化方法方面受到了广泛关注。在众多主动和被动微流控技术中，惯性微流控提供了一种简单高效的方法来展示各种生物应用。该方法的一个普遍局限性是，一旦微流控设备制造完成，其对于不同应用缺乏可调性。在这项工作中，我们开发并表征了一种共流惯性微流控设备，该设备在多个方面具有可调性，以适应不同的应用需求。具体而言，系统地评估了流速、流速比和输出阻力比，以实现设备截止尺寸的灵活性以及制造后分离性能的改进。通常，使用单一尺寸颗粒的混合物来确定出口的截止尺寸，但这无法为更复杂的生物样品的效率和纯度提供准确预测。因此，我们使用具有连续尺寸分布（2 - 32μm）的颗粒在各种流速、流速比和阻力比条件下进行分离演示。我们还使用具有连续尺寸分布（12 - 27μm）的A549癌细胞系作为补充演示。我们的结果表明，惯性微流控设备具有可调性，即使在设备原型制作完成后，也能提供多种方法来改善设备性能以适应不同应用。
