Particle mixing and concentration through competing electrokinetic and hydrodynamic flows

We have developed a novel, low voltage particle concentration and separation paradigm that exploits the interplay between electrokinetic, dielectrophoretic, and pressure-driven flows. The devices presented utilize weak DC fields (5-25 V/cm) and patterned, insulating microfluidic channels. This approach has been applied to species varying in size by two orders of magnitude on the same chip (2 μm-20 nm), can be applied to both biological and synthetic particles, and permits the channel geometry to be optimized to a specific size range.