Continuous dielectrophoretic separation of colloidal particles

Abstract

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is a technique that can be used to separate particle at microscale. It is of particular interest because it is a non-invasive, non-destructive and non-contact technique, which ensures that sample composition remains the same with only the particles being separated. On the microscale, DEP has been used to separate viable and non-viable cells, and cells with different dielectric properties, with the aid of a range of miniaturised, microfabricated devices. However, DEP at the nano-scale is a novel area and is still under research.

Miniaturisation of devices in general has been an ongoing trend to improve the performance of analytical tools. In particular, processes for micro-device fabrication using dry film resist have been studied in order to reduce size, cost, sophisticated hardware usage and power consumption.

This thesis presents an investigation into the novel design of dielectrophoretic particle separator, using rapid dry film resist methods to construct an integrated device. The development of analysis software for detecting particle movement in videos of experiments is presented, along with its use as a data analysis tool for determining particle position in the array. Characterisation measurements have been performed for a range of experimental parameters demonstrating the variability and behaviour of the device. Separation experiments were performed using test micron and submicron particles over a wide range of applied field frequencies, confirming the theoretical predictions and demonstrate the standard of separation efficiency.

Preliminary investigations of other application of the device to larger particle and integrating micropump technology are also presented.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Nicolas Green: orcid.org/0000-0001-9230-4455

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