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Enhancing microcantilever capability with integrated AC electroosmotic trapping

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Abstract

Microcantilevers are finding wide applications in detecting biochemical agents. However, their usage has been limited to highly concentrated samples to ensure sufficient deposition of agents onto cantilevers. A pre-concentration or enrichment step will expand their application range to more dilute, practical samples and real-time detection. This paper reports the integration of in-situ particle concentrators on microcantilevers. Only a thin metal layer on microcantilevers is required to generate microfluidic convection of particles from solution bulk onto microcantilever surfaces, greatly enriching local particle counts and enhancing sensitivity of the system. A working prototype is presented in the paper. Preliminary experiments concentrating latex particles were conducted and the particle concentration effect has been experimentally verified using AFM probes as microcantilevers. As ACEO concentrator has no dependence on particle properties, the method is expected to be applicable to bio-particles collection.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the US National Science Foundation under Grant ECS-0448896, and Tennessee Science Alliance Award. A portion of this research was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is sponsored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory by the Division of Scientific User Facilities, US Department of Energy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    N. Islam, M. Lian & J. Wu

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  1. N. Islam
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  2. M. Lian
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  3. J. Wu
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Correspondence to J. Wu.

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Islam, N., Lian, M. & Wu, J. Enhancing microcantilever capability with integrated AC electroosmotic trapping. Microfluid Nanofluid 3, 369–375 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-006-0138-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-006-0138-z

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