Alternating current-dielectrophoresis driven on-chip collection and chaining of green microalgae in freshwaters

Coralie Suscillon, Orlin D. Velev, and Vera I. Slaveykova

The capability of the AC dielectrophoresis (DEP) for on-chip capture and chaining of microalgae suspended in freshwaters was evaluated. The effects of freshwater composition as well as the electric field voltage, frequency, and duration, on the dielectrophoretic response of microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii were characterized systematically. Highest efficiency of cell alignment in one-dimensional arrays, determined by the percentage of cells in chain and the chain length, was obtained at AC-field of 20V/mm and 1kHz applied for 600s.

Biomicrofluidics 7, 024109 (2013)

A capillary dielectrophoretic chip for real-time blood cell separation from a drop of whole blood

Shu-Hsien Liao, Ching-Yu Chang, and Hsien-Chang Chang

This study proposes a capillary dielectrophoretic chip to separate blood cells from a drop of whole blood (approximately 1μl) sample using negative dielectrophoretic force. The separating efficiency was evaluated by analyzing the image before and after dielectrophoretic force manipulation. Blood samples with various hematocrits (10%-60%) were tested with varied separating voltages and chip designs. In this study, a chip with 50μm gap design achieved a separation efficiency of approximately 90% within 30s when the hematocrit was in the range of 10%-50%.

Biomicrofluidics 7, 024110 (2013)

A fluorescence based method for the quantification of surface functional groups in closed micro- and nanofluidic channels

Yu Wang, Rachel D. Lowe, Yara X. Mejia, Holger Feindt, Siegfried Steltenkamp, and Thomas P. Burg

Surface analysis is critical for the validation of microfluidic surface modifications for biology, chemistry, and physics applications. However, until now quantitative analytical methods have mostly been focused on open surfaces. Here, we present a new fluorescence imaging method to directly measure the surface coverage of functional groups inside assembled microchannels over a wide dynamic range.

Biomicrofluidics 7, 026503 (2013)