title: Continuous particle separation through deterministic lateral displacement.
abstract: We report on a microfluidic particle-separation device that makes use of the asymmetric bifurcation of laminar flow around obstacles. A particle chooses its path deterministically on the basis of its size. All particles of a given size follow equivalent migration paths, leading to high resolution. The microspheres of 0.8, 0.9, and 1.0 micrometers that were used to characterize the device were sorted in 40 seconds with a resolution of approximately 10 nanometers, which was better than the time and resolution of conventional flow techniques. Bacterial artificial chromosomes could be separated in 10 minutes with a resolution of approximately 12%.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM), Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Lotien Richard
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Edward C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Austin
authors.forename: James C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Sturm
mesh_terms: D005591:Chemical Fractionation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002627:Chemistry, Physical; D022202:Chromosomes, Artificial, Bacterial; D004058:Diffusion; D004560:Electricity; D031521:Fractionation, Field Flow / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D044085:Microfluidics; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008863:Microspheres; D008904:Miniaturization; D010316:Particle Size; D012212:Rheology