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Updated: Jun 19, 2026
Separating Beads and Cells in Multi-channel Microfluidic Devices Using Dielectrophoresis and Laminar Flow
Published on: February 4, 2011
Directional locking and the role of irreversible interactions in deterministic hydrodynamics separations in
Manuel Balvin1, Eunkyung Sohn, Tara Iracki
1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
Abstract:
We performed macroscopic experiments on the motion of a sphere through an array of obstacles that highlight the deterministic nature of the lateral displacements that lead to particle separation in microfluidic systems. The motion of the spheres is irreversible and displays directional locking. The locking directions can be predicted with a single parameter that distinguishes between reversible and irreversible particle-obstacle collisions. These results stress the need to incorporate irreversible interactions to predict the movement of a non-Brownian sphere passing through a periodic array.
