Microfluidics for Label-Free Particle Sorting and Characterisation

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "E:Engineering and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2022) | Viewed by 5055

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), 4715-330 Braga, Portugal
Interests: microfluidics; lab-on-a-chip; organ-on-a-chip; single-cell analytics; label-free particle sorting

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Guest Editor
International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), 4715-330 Braga, Portugal
Interests: microfluidics; impedance cytometry; dielectric characterization of cells; single-cell analytics; label-free particle sorting

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Guest Editor
Division of Solid State Physics and NanoLund, Physics Department, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, 22100 Lund, Sweden
Interests: microfluidics; nanofluidics; particle separation; DNA mechanics; DNA separation; microscopy; microfabrication; electrokinetics
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Label-free particle sorting and characterisation has come to the fore within the microfluidics arena owing to the outstanding control over fluid dynamics offered by laminar flow and its underlying phenomena. Indeed, many phenomena are faster at the microscale and a smaller scale also typically leads to an increased magnitude of applied external forces as occurs in dielectrophoresis or magnetophoresis. Label-free sorting is particularly important when the sorted particles are intended for further downstream analysis or use in, e.g., tissue engineering, regenerative medicine or other therapeutic applications. Label-free sorting or phenotyping is commonly based on intrinsic particle properties including their size, shape, deformability, dielectric and acoustic properties, among others. This can also be invaluable for point of care diagnostics where resources are limited and/or complex equipment is not available.

This Special Issue seeks to showcase research papers, communications and review articles that focus on: i) the development of new strategies and device designs for particle sorting using microfluidics; ii) new applications of label-free particle sorting aiming towards cell enrichment for regenerative medicine or other therapeutics; and iii) applications of particle sorting aiming towards the enrichment of cells, bacteria, viral particles, extracellular vesicles, DNA or other biological and nonbiological particles for diagnostics, drug development studies, and further research.

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

Dr. Miguel Xavier
Dr. Carlos Honrado
Dr. Jason P. Beech
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • microfluidics
  • lab-on-a-chip
  • label-free
  • particle sorting
  • single cell
  • extracellular vesicles
  • CTCs
  • bacteria
  • viral particles
  • DNA
  • RNA
  • stem cells
  • diagnostics
  • POC
  • regenerative medicine
  • tissue engineering
  • dielectrophoresis
  • magnetophoresis
  • acoustophoresis
  • deterministic lateral displacement
  • inertial focusing
  • electrokinetics

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3708 KiB  
Article
Phononic-Crystal-Based Particle Sieving in Continuous Flow: Numerical Simulations
by Laixin Huang, Juan Zhou, Deqing Kong and Fei Li
Micromachines 2022, 13(12), 2181; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13122181 - 9 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1622
Abstract
Sieving specific particles from mixed samples is of great value in fields such as biochemistry and additive manufacturing. In this study, a particle sieving method for microfluidics was proposed based on a phononic crystal plate (PCP), the mechanism of which originates from the [...] Read more.
Sieving specific particles from mixed samples is of great value in fields such as biochemistry and additive manufacturing. In this study, a particle sieving method for microfluidics was proposed based on a phononic crystal plate (PCP), the mechanism of which originates from the competition between the trapping effect of the resonant PCP-induced acoustic radiation force (ARF), disturbance effect of acoustic streaming (AS), and flushing effect of the continuous inlet flow on particles suspended in microfluidic channels. Specifically, particles with different sizes could be separated under inlet flow conditions owing to ARF and AS drag forces as functions of the particle diameter, incident acoustic pressure, and driving frequency. Furthermore, a comprehensive numerical analysis was performed to investigate the impacts of ARF, AS, and inlet flow conditions on the particle motion and sieving efficiency, and to explore proper operating parameters, including the acoustic pressure and inlet flow velocity. It was found that, for each inlet flow velocity, there was an optimal acoustic pressure allowing us to achieve the maximum sieving efficiency, but the sieving efficiency at a low flow velocity was not as good as that at a high flow velocity. Although a PCP with a high resonant frequency could weaken the AS, thereby suiting the sieving of small particles (<5 μm), a low channel height corresponding to a high frequency limits the throughput. Therefore, it is necessary to design a PCP with a suitable resonant frequency based on the size of the particles to be sieved. This investigation can provide guidance for the design of massive acoustic sorting mi-crofluidic devices based on phononic crystals or acoustic metamaterials under continuous flow. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidics for Label-Free Particle Sorting and Characterisation)
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13 pages, 3154 KiB  
Article
Measuring the Compressibility of Cellulose Nanofiber-Stabilized Microdroplets Using Acoustophoresis
by Ksenia Loskutova, Karl Olofsson, Björn Hammarström, Martin Wiklund, Anna J. Svagan and Dmitry Grishenkov
Micromachines 2021, 12(12), 1465; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12121465 - 27 Nov 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2306
Abstract
Droplets with a liquid perfluoropentane core and a cellulose nanofiber shell have the potential to be used as drug carriers in ultrasound-mediated drug delivery. However, it is necessary to understand their mechanical properties to develop ultrasound imaging sequences that enable in vivo imaging [...] Read more.
Droplets with a liquid perfluoropentane core and a cellulose nanofiber shell have the potential to be used as drug carriers in ultrasound-mediated drug delivery. However, it is necessary to understand their mechanical properties to develop ultrasound imaging sequences that enable in vivo imaging of the vaporization process to ensure optimized drug delivery. In this work, the compressibility of droplets stabilized with cellulose nanofibers was estimated using acoustophoresis at three different acoustic pressures. Polyamide particles of known size and material properties were used for calibration. The droplet compressibility was then used to estimate the cellulose nanofiber bulk modulus and compare it to experimentally determined values. The results showed that the acoustic contrast factor for these droplets was negative, as the droplets relocated to pressure antinodes during ultrasonic actuation. The droplet compressibility was 6.6–6.8 ×1010 Pa1, which is higher than for water (4.4×1010 Pa1) but lower than for pure perfluoropentane (2.7×109 Pa1). The compressibility was constant across different droplet diameters, which was consistent with the idea that the shell thickness depends on the droplet size, rather than being constant. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidics for Label-Free Particle Sorting and Characterisation)
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