title: A novel approach to dielectrophoresis using carbon electrodes.
abstract: Carbon-electrode dielectrophoresis (carbon-DEP) is demonstrated here as an alternative to more traditional DEP techniques. Carbon-DEP combines advantages of metal-electrode and insulator-based DEP by using low-cost fabrication techniques and low voltages for particle manipulation. The use of 3-D electrodes is proved to yield significant advantages over the use of traditional planar electrodes. This paper details the fabrication of dense arrays of tall high aspect ratio carbon electrodes on a transparent fused-silica substrate. The shrinkage of the SU-8 structures during carbonization is characterized and a design tool for future devices is provided. Applications of carbon electrodes in DEP are then detailed and include particle positioning, high-throughput filtering and cell focusing using positive-DEP. Manipulated cells include Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Drosophila melanogaster. The advantages and disadvantages of carbon-DEP are discussed at the end of this work.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Irvine, USA. drmartnz@gmail.com
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Martinez-Duarte
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Renaud
authors.forename: Marc J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Madou
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000166:cytology; D004566:Electrodes; D004586:Electrophoresis / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000166:cytology
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon