High pressure inertial focusing for separating and concentrating bacteria at high throughput. (27th June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cruz, J; Hooshmand Zadeh, S; Graells, T; Andersson, M; Malmström, J; Wu, Z G; Hjort, K
• Is Part Of: Journal of micromechanics and microengineering. Volume 27:Number 8(2017:Aug.)
• Publication Date: 2017-06-27
• Subjects: bacteria separation -- particle separation -- inertial focusing -- high pressure -- glass chips -- PDMS -- microfluidic channel; Microelectromechanical systems -- Periodicals; Micromechanics -- Periodicals; 621.38105
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6439/aa6b14
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0960-1317

Abstract

Abstract: Inertial focusing is a promising microfluidic technology for concentration and separation of particles by size. However, there is a strong correlation of increased pressure with decreased particle size. Theory and experimental results for larger particles were used to scale down the phenomenon and find the conditions that focus 1 µ m particles. High pressure experiments in robust glass chips were used to demonstrate the alignment. We show how the technique works for 1 µ m spherical polystyrene particles and for Escherichia coli, not being harmful for the bacteria at 50 µ l min −1 . The potential to focus bacteria, simplicity of use and high throughput make this technology interesting for healthcare applications, where concentration and purification of a sample may be required as an initial step.