Cell Separation in a Water-drop-shaped Deterministic Lateral Displacement Device

Owing to continuous advancements in microfluidic technology, deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) chips have been successfully applied to the separation of red blood cells (RBCs) and circulating tumour cells (CTCs). To increase the separation efficiency and purity of cells in a DLD microfluidic device, the factors affecting the trajectories of cells within the chip remain an important research topic. In this paper, COMSOL Multiphysics software is used to simulate the motion of cells in a DLD microfluidic device, and cells are considered deformable particles. The effects of the micropillar shape, the row displacement fraction, and the orientation of the water-drop-shaped pillars on the cell transport mode and its separation efficiency are investigated. The results show that a water-drop-shaped micropillar array can increase the lateral displacement of a single particle compared to a traditional circular micropillar array. The arrangement of the water-drop-shaped micropillar array is varied to analyse the cell trajectory. By rotating the water-drop-shaped pillar clockwise by ۱۰°, the cell is laterally displaced earlier for the micropillar array with a specific row shift of ۰.۰۶۴۷. Furthermore, two cells of different diameters separate at a faster rate in the water-drop-shaped DLD device than in the traditional circular-shaped DLD device. Therefore, the water-drop-shaped pillar array is suitable for the design of DLD devices.

کلیدواژه ها:

Microfluidic chip ، Deterministic lateral displacement ، Micropillar shape ، Transport mode ، Particle separation