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Investigation on the focusing and separation of polystyrene microbeads in an integrated microfluidic system using magnetized functionalized flexible micro-magnet arrays

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Abstract

Focusing and separation of cells by microfluidic techniques are significant steps in many applications, such as single-cell analysis and disease diagnosis. Among the microfluidic techniques, passive magnetophoresis, as a label-free manner, can manipulate samples by means of magnetic field. Nowadays, most magnetic fields are generated by permanent magnets and electromagnets with large size. However, it is difficult to assemble a magnetic array using permanent magnets or electromagnets to optimize the field distribution. To produce a flexible magnetic field, a micro-magnet made by NdFeB powder and polydimethyl siloxane is proposed in this paper, and those magnetized micro-magnets are arranged into different arrays according to the arrangements of their magnetization directions. Meanwhile, a microfluidic chip containing magnetized micro-magnet arrays is designed for focusing and separating polystyrene microbeads with different diameters. The focusing and separation behaviors of microbeads in the designed microfluidic system are numerical and experimental investigated. In addition, the effects of flow rate and the arrangement of the magnetic micro-magnet array on microbead focusing and separation are discussed. Finally, a multistage microfluidic chip is designed to successfully isolate 5 μm-diameter, 10 μm-diameter, and 15 μm-diameter microbeads from their mixture at a flow rate of 240 μL/min with high purity.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China under project 52307015, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under project sxzy012022014, and the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province under project 2023-JC-QN-0488.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China, 52307015, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, sxzy012022014, Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province, 2023-JC-QN-0488.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, **’an Jiaotong University, No. 28 **anning West Road, **’an, 710049, Shaanxi Province, China

    Shuang Chen, Jiajia Sun, Zongqian Shi, **aofeng Liu, Yuxin Ma, Ruohan Li, Shumin **n & Nan Wang

  2. School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu City, 610100, Sichuan Province, China

    Shuang Chen

  3. School of Mechanical Engineering, **’an Jiaotong University, **’an, 710049, Shaanxi Province, China

    **aoling Li

  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA

    Kai Wu

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  1. Shuang Chen
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  2. Jiajia Sun
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  4. **aofeng Liu
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  10. Kai Wu
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Contributions

S.C. and J.S. wrote the main manuscript text along with simulation, fabrication, and testing of the microfluidic device. Z.S., X.L. and K.W. revised and reviewed the manuscript. X.L., Y.M. and R.L. performed the experiments. S.X. and N.W. analyzed simulation data.

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Correspondence to Jiajia Sun or Zongqian Shi.

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Chen, S., Sun, J., Shi, Z. et al. Investigation on the focusing and separation of polystyrene microbeads in an integrated microfluidic system using magnetized functionalized flexible micro-magnet arrays. Microfluid Nanofluid 28, 51 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-024-02749-5

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