Effects of syringe pump fluctuations on cell-free layer in hydrodynamic separation microfluidic devices
Effects of syringe pump fluctuations on cell-free layer in hydrodynamic separation microfluidic devices
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DOI：
10.1063/5.0057415
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发表时间：
2021-07-01
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Kersaudy-Kerhoas, Maiwenn
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Haque, Md Ehtashamul;Matin, Amirali;Kersaudy-Kerhoas, Maiwenn
注射泵是广泛使用的生物医学设备，它提供了低成本的解决方案来驱动和控制通过微流控芯片的流量。然而，它们已经被证明会将由步进电机产生的机械振荡传递到流体中，从而干扰设备的性能。这些有害影响大多被报道在微液滴的产生上，但从未报道过在流体动力两相分离上，例如在利用无细胞层现象的微器件中。虽然可以使用各种机制来规避注射泵振荡，但研究初始系统中的振荡效应是有意义的，这在研究环境中很常见。以往的波动研究集中在相对较低的流量上，通常低于5ml/h，并且显示相对压力波动作为流量的函数呈线性衰减。在这项工作中，我们发现相对压力波动在较高的流速下达到平台，通常高于5ml/h。利用一种新型的低成本编码压缩旋转反射相机，研究了基于无细胞层概念的流体动力微流控分离装置中波动的影响。我们证明了无细胞区宽度波动与注射泵诱导的压力振荡具有相同的频率和幅度，并说明了随后的颗粒分离退化。这项工作深入了解了注射泵波动对微流体分离的影响，这将为微流体系统的设计提供信息，并在不使用辅助设备的情况下提高其对脉动或波动流动条件的弹性。
Syringe pumps are widely used biomedical equipment, which offer low-cost solutions to drive and control flow through microfluidic chips. However, they have been shown to transmit mechanical oscillations resulting from their stepper motors into the flow, perturbing device performance. These detrimental effects have mostly been reported on microdroplet production, but have never been reported on hydrodynamic two-phase separation, such as in microdevices making use of cell-free layer phenomena. While various mechanisms can be used to circumvent syringe pump oscillations, it is of interest to study the oscillation effects in naive systems, which are common in research settings. Previous fluctuation studies focused on relatively low flow rates, typically below 5ml/h, and showed a linear decay of the relative pressure fluctuations as a function of the flow rate. In this work, we have uncovered that the relative pressure fluctuations reach a plateau at higher flow rates, typically above 5ml/h. Using a novel low-cost coded compressive rotating mirror camera, we investigated the effect of fluctuations in a hydrodynamic microfluidic separation device based on a cell-free layer concept. We demonstrated that cell-free zone width fluctuations have the same frequency and amplitude than the syringe pump-induced pressure oscillations and illustrated the subsequent degradation of particle separation. This work provides an insight into the effect of syringe pump fluctuations on microfluidic separation, which will inform the design of microfluidic systems and improve their resilience to pulsating or fluctuating flow conditions without the use of ancillary equipment.