Modelling hybrid acoustofluidic devices for enhancing Nano- and Micro-Particle manipulation in microfluidics

Abstract

Acoustofluidic techniques are increasingly used to manipulate nano- and micro-particles in microfluidics. A wide range of acoustofluidic devices consisting of microchannels and acoustic sources have been developed for applications in biochemistry and biomedicine. In this work, two hybrid acoustofluidic devices are developed and modelled, including a double surface acoustic wave (SAW) transducer and a PZT-SAW transducer. The numerical study to these devices demonstrates a higher acoustic pressure present in the microchannel resulting in larger particle velocities in migration to the pressure nodes. The amplitude of the acoustic pressure and the pattern of the pressure distribution can be controlled in the hybrid transducers. By sweeping the height and width of the microchannel, one can identify an optimum dimension to produce intensive acoustic pressure in the PZT-SAW transducer. The particle trajectories reveal that both the SAW-SAW and PZT-SAW configurations produce significantly higher acoustic pressure and particle velocity in the microchannel. This work provides new insights to design acoustofluidic devices with more than one SAW transducer to effectively manipulate micro- and nano-particles.