Abstract
The interaction of dielectrophoresis (DEP) particles in an electric field has been observed in many experiments, known as the “particle chains phenomenon”. However, the study in 3D models (spherical particles) is rarely reported due to its complexity and significant computational cost. In this paper, we employed the iterative dipole moment (IDM) method to study the 3D interaction of a large number of dense DEP particles randomly distributed on a plane perpendicular to a uniform alternating current (AC) electric field in a bounded or unbounded space. The numerical results indicated that the particles cannot move out of the initial plane. The similar particles (either all positive or all negative DEP particles) always repelled each other, and did not form a chain. The dissimilar particles (a mixture of positive and negative DEP particles) always attracted each other, and formed particle chains consisting of alternately arranged positive and negative DEP particles. The particle chain patterns can be randomly multitudinous depending on the initial particle distribution, the electric properties of particles/fluid, the particle sizes and the number of particles. It is also found that the particle chain patterns can be effectively manipulated via tuning the frequency of the AC field and an almost uniform distribution of particles in a bounded plane chip can be achieved when all of the particles are similar, which may have potential applications in the particle manipulation of microfluidics.
Highlights
An electric force exerted on a non-conducting particle when a locally non-uniform electric field is applied is called dielectrophoresis (DEP) [1,2,3]
It is found that the particle chain patterns can be effectively manipulated via tuning the frequency of the alternating current (AC) field and an almost uniform distribution of particles in a bounded plane chip can be achieved when all of the particles are similar, which may have potential applications in the particle manipulation of microfluidics
The particle is polarized in a non-uniform electric field, which arises from the spatial variation or time variation of the field (direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC))
Summary
An electric force exerted on a non-conducting particle when a locally non-uniform electric field is applied is called dielectrophoresis (DEP) [1,2,3]. The MST method is the most rigorous approach to calculate the DEP forces It is not practical in cases of 3D DEP interactions of a larger number of particles due to the numerical errors and the significant cost of computation. The DEP interactions of a large number of particles in a 3D electric field have not been well studied due to great difficulties in numerical computation. The motion trajectories and final chains of the particles are in good agreement with the results of the previous numerical studies and consistent with the experiments This method has been successfully applied in the interaction of a large number of particles in 2D DC and AC fields [35,36]. The effect of a circular boundary to the DEP particle interactions is investigated
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