Department of Mechanical Design and Robot Engineering, Seoul National University of Science & Technology, 232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Korea.
Department of Electronic Engineering, Kwangwoon University, 20 Kwangwoon-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01897, Korea.
Sensors (Basel). 2022 Jun 22;22(13):4709. doi: 10.3390/s22134709.
In this paper, we proposed an integrated microfluidic device that could demonstrate the non-contact, label-free separation of particles and cells through the combination of inertial microfluidics and acoustophoresis. The proposed device integrated two microfluidic chips which were a PDMS channel chip on top of the silicon-based acoustofluidic chip. The PDMS chip worked by prefocusing the particles/cells through inducing the inertial force of the channel structure. The connected acoustofluidic chips separated particles based on their size through an acoustic radiation force. In the serpentine-shaped PDMS chip, particles formed two lines focusing in the channel, and a trifugal-shaped acoustofluidic chip displaced and separated particles, in which larger particles focused on the central channel and smaller ones moved to the side channels. The simultaneous fluidic works allowed high-efficiency particle separation. Using this novel acoustofluidic device with an inertial microchannel, the separation of particles and cells based on their size was presented and analyzed, and the efficiency of the device was shown. The device demonstrated excellent separation performance with a high recovery ratio (up to 96.3%), separation efficiency (up to 99%), and high volume rate (>100 µL/min). Our results showed that integrated devices could be a viable alternative to current cell separation based on their low cost, reduced sample consumption and high throughput capability.
本文提出了一种集成微流控装置，通过惯性微流控和声悬浮的结合，实现了对粒子和细胞的非接触、无标记分离。该装置集成了两个微流控芯片，一个是在硅基声流控芯片上的 PDMS 通道芯片。PDMS 芯片通过诱导通道结构的惯性力对粒子/细胞进行预聚焦。连接的声流控芯片通过声辐射力根据粒子大小对粒子进行分离。在蛇形 PDMS 芯片中，粒子在通道中聚焦成两条线，而三叶形声流控芯片则使粒子发生位移并实现分离，其中较大的粒子聚焦在中心通道，较小的粒子则移动到侧通道。同时进行的流体力学操作允许高效的粒子分离。利用这种具有惯性微通道的新型声流控装置，对基于尺寸的粒子和细胞分离进行了演示和分析，并展示了该装置的效率。该装置具有出色的分离性能，具有高回收率（高达 96.3%）、高分离效率（高达 99%）和高体积流量（>100 µL/min）。我们的结果表明，与目前基于成本、减少样本消耗和高吞吐量能力的细胞分离方法相比，集成设备是一种可行的替代方法。
