Abstract
Inertial focusing is a microfluidic based separation and concentration technology that has expanded rapidly in the last few years. Throughput is high compared to other microfluidic approaches although sample volumes have typically remained in the millilitre range. Here we present a strategy for achieving rapid high volume processing with stacked and cascaded inertial focusing systems, allowing for separation and concentration of particles with a large size range, demonstrated here from 30 μm–300 μm. The system is based on curved channels, in a novel toroidal configuration and a stack of 20 devices has been shown to operate at 1 L/min. Recirculation allows for efficient removal of large particles whereas a cascading strategy enables sequential removal of particles down to a final stage where the target particle size can be concentrated. The demonstration of curved stacked channels operating in a cascaded manner allows for high throughput applications, potentially replacing filtration in applications such as environmental monitoring, industrial cleaning processes, biomedical and bioprocessing and many more.
Highlights
Dewatering for biofuel production[31,32], to clean circulating oil in vehicles and heavy rotating machinery[33] and bioprocessing/biotechnology[34]
Mach et al.[35] reported a parallelized approach based on a “Ferris wheel” arrangement of straight channels with 40 devices fed from one inlet
Given that flow rate is a critical parameter in determining separation efficiency[12], we have developed a new stacking approach using a novel toroidal channel design to enable easy access to the inlet and outlets along with a novel manifold to deliver equalized inlet pressure to the stack
Summary
Dewatering for biofuel production[31,32], to clean circulating oil in vehicles and heavy rotating machinery[33] and bioprocessing/biotechnology[34]. Mach et al.[35] reported a parallelized approach based on a “Ferris wheel” arrangement of straight channels with 40 devices fed from one inlet This system processed 30 mL of blood at a flow rate of 8 mL/min and it was proposed that stacking of the single layer Ferris arrangement could enable further throughput increases. The new designs of the IF channel as well as the novel stacking approach, here incorporating 20 devices, has enabled processing of 1 L/min doubling the current highest throughput rate for IF reported recently by Warkiani at 500 mL/min. We propose that a combination of the stacking, recirculation and cascade strategy will enable large volume processing of samples with a large particle size range, opening up inertial focusing systems to a wider range of industrial and biotechnology applications
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