Single-phase dielectrophoretic and electrorotation studies using three dimensional electrodes for cell characterization

A novel electrokinetic approach using single-phase electrorotation for the label-free manipulation and characterization of biological cells is presented. A single shell model was used to theoretically design and develop an experimental strategy for biological particle characterization. As a study model, electro-rotation of glutathione agarose (GA) beads was studied using three- dimensional spatially oriented micro-needle setup. Effect of electrical parameters (i) voltage: from 0-10 Vpp and (ii) frequency: 0-100 MHz was evaluated on a heterogeneous mixture of GA beads (35-150 microns). The relationship of the electrical parameters to rotational frequency of the beads was studied. This paper demonstrates a simple and easy to implement prototype for electrokinetic characterization of particles with translational potential for biological cells.