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On-chip whole blood plasma separator based on microfiltration, sedimentation and wetting contrast

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Abstract

Miniaturized on-chip blood separators have a great value for point-of-care diagnosis. In our work, a combined design strategy—microfiltration, sedimentation in a retarded flow, and wetting contrast—was taken to overcome the known limitations of on-chip blood separators. Our microfluidic chip consists of a polydimethylsiloxane micropillar array and an etched glass with microchannel branches. The red blood cells are significantly slowed and gradually settled down due to micropillars and enlarged dimension of a chamber. An etched glass microchannel allows the extraction of blood plasma exclusively due to the capillary effect. The fabricated microfluidic device can separate blood plasma from a whole blood sample without any external driving force or dilution. The measured plasma separation efficiency was close to 100 % from human whole blood. Autonomous on-chip separation and collection of blood plasma was demonstrated.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute Primary Research Program through the Korea Research Council for Industrial Science and Technology funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (No. 13-12-N0201-07), and Namjeong Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA

    Sanghoon Park, Roxana Shabani, Mark Schumacher & Hyoung Jin Cho

  2. Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32827, USA

    Yoon-Seoung Kim

  3. Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, Ansan, 426-170, Republic of Korea

    Young Min Bae & Kyeong-Hee Lee

Authors
  1. Sanghoon Park
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  2. Roxana Shabani
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  3. Mark Schumacher
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  4. Yoon-Seoung Kim
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  5. Young Min Bae
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  6. Kyeong-Hee Lee
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  7. Hyoung Jin Cho
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Correspondence to Sanghoon Park.

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Park, S., Shabani, R., Schumacher, M. et al. On-chip whole blood plasma separator based on microfiltration, sedimentation and wetting contrast. Microsyst Technol 22, 2077–2085 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-015-2656-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-015-2656-7

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