Lab-on-a disc platform for particle focusing induced by inertial forces

摘要

Dean forces have been consistently used in microfluidic mixing units and recently also have been utilized to separate particles in inertial force driven systems by secondary flows. Microfluidic separation systems using inertial forces created by curved asymmetric channels have already been established in the literature. In the present work, we propose a centrifugal lab-on-a-disc platform, which can provide focusing of particles of 21 μm diameter size and high separation of two different density types of particles (polystyrene and silica) using of both the inertial focusing forces and sedimentation forces. This comprises the primary advantage of the proposed platform compared to a pump-driven system. This platform can be utilized for the separation of different types of cells bound to specifically-functionalized particles of different densities.