Elasto-inertial particle focusing under the viscoelastic flow of DNA solution in a square channel

Abstract

Particle focusing is an essential step in a wide range of applications such as cell counting and sorting. Recently, viscoelastic particle focusing, which exploits the spatially non-uniform viscoelastic properties of a polymer solution under Poiseuille flow, has attracted much attention because the particles are focused along the channel centerline without any external force. Lateral particle migration in polymer solutions in square channels has been studied due to its practical importance in labon-a-chip applications. However, there are still many questions about how the rheological properties of the medium alter the equilibrium particle positions and about the flow rate ranges for particle focusing. In this study, we investigated lateral particle migration in a viscoelastic flow of DNA solution in a square microchannel. The elastic property is relevant due to the long relaxation time of a DNA molecule, even when the DNA concentration is extremely low. Further, the shear viscosity of the solution is essentially constant irrespective of shear rate. Our current results demonstrate that the particles migrate toward the channel centerline and the four corners of a square channel in the dilute DNA solution when the inertia is negligible (elasticity-dominant flow). As the flow rate increases, the multiple equilibrium particle positions are reduced to a single file along the channel centerline, due to the elasto-inertial particle focusing mechanism. The current results support that elasto-inertial particle focusing mechanism is a universal phenomenon in a viscoelastic fluid with constant shear viscosity (Boger fluid). Also, the effective flow rate ranges for three-dimensional particle focusing in the DNA solution were significantly higher and wider than those for the previous synthetic polymer solution case, which facilitates high throughput analysis of particulate systems. In addition, we demonstrated that the DNA solution can be applied to focus a wide range of particle sizes in a single channel and also align red blood cells without any significant deformation. V

Particle manipulations in non-Newtonian microfluidics: A review

“…They are also strongly shear thinning unless the DNA concentration is very low ( 10 ppm) as viewed from the plot of viscosity vs. shear rate in Fig. 5a [108]. Fig.…”

Cross‐stream migration of nonspherical particles in second‐order fluid flows: Effect of flow profiles

“…12 The focusing phenomenon provides a possible method to achieve marker-free, label-free separation of the suspension components. Many of the previous studies developed strategies for separating particles by tuning the fluid rheology (e.g., flow rate, fluid viscoelasticity, polymer type) 8,[13][14][15] or by tuning particle size, shape, and deformability. 12,[16][17][18] Viscoelastic focusing in particular bears favorable properties such as its wide variety of operating flow rates as well as the compact, single focusing line in the flow.…”

In-flow real-time detection of spectrally encoded microgels for miRNA absolute quantification

“…Viscoelastic induced particle alignment is of considerable interest, due to the fact that the spatially non-uniform viscoelastic properties of a non-Newtonian polymer solution under Poiseuille flow trigger particles to migrate in the centreline without any external force (Romeo et al , 2013; D'Avino et al , 2012; Kim and Kim, 2016; Yuan et al , 2015; Lu et al. , 2015; and Nam et al.…”

“…Lateral particle migration in polymer solutions in square channels has been studied due to its practical importance in lab-on-a-chip applications. We have chosen a cost effective polymer, which generally shows reduced relaxation times compared to DNA as the alignment trigger (Kim and Kim, 2016). …”