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Integrating hydrodynamic and acoustic cell separation in a hybrid microfluidic device: a numerical analysis

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Abstract

Cell separation microfluidic devices have evolved into a multitude of biomedical and clinical research. Nonetheless, many critical issues remain in the way of achieving an excellent separation of target cells from a heterogeneous sample. Parallel to the abundant experimental studies related to the hybrid microfluidic methods, it is easy to perceive the lack of numerical investigations in order to optimize the separation process and its accuracy. In this study, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, a hybrid system by integrating acoustophoresis and pinched-flow fractionation (PFF) is proposed to achieve a viable system for a wide-range, precise separation. Employing the ultrasound field would result in remarkably enhanced amplification of separation distance in the conventional PFF microchannels. This active–passive method provides many advantages and expunges the limitations of each method. A noticeable flaw in the acoustic cell separation is the confined amount of driving voltage because of the irreparable effects of high-voltage on the biological cells. On the other hand, in the PFF method, particle separation with a perfect resolution cannot be attained. The novel device presented in this work eradicates the aforementioned issues and provides an accurate, continuous separation with a lower demanded RF signal amplitude in comparison with the conventional devices. The results show that a high-resolution separation can be attained by applying only 2 V to the system with a total flow rate of 5 μl/min.

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Author notes

  1. Amir Hossein Kazemipour Ashkezari and Mahdi Dizani have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Azadi Ave, Tehran, Iran

    Amir Hossein Kazemipour Ashkezari, Mahdi Dizani & Amir Shamloo

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  1. Amir Hossein Kazemipour Ashkezari
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  2. Mahdi Dizani
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  3. Amir Shamloo
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Correspondence to Amir Shamloo.

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Ashkezari, A.H.K., Dizani, M. & Shamloo, A. Integrating hydrodynamic and acoustic cell separation in a hybrid microfluidic device: a numerical analysis. Acta Mech 233, 1881–1894 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00707-022-03206-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00707-022-03206-6

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