Sub-100 nm Nanoparticle Upconcentration in Flow by Dielectrophoretic Forces

This paper presents a novel microfluidic chip for upconcentration of sub-100 nm nanoparticles in a flow using electrical forces generated by a DC or AC field. Two electrode designs were optimized using COMSOL Multiphysics and tested using particles with sizes as low as 47 nm. We show how inclined electrodes with a zig-zag three-tooth configuration in a channel of 20 µm width are the ones generating the highest gradient and therefore the largest force. The design, based on AC dielectrophoresis, was shown to upconcentrate sub-100 nm particles by a factor of 11 using a flow rate of 2-25 µL/h. We present theoretical and experimental results and discuss how the chip design can easily be massively parallelized in order to increase throughput by a factor of at least 1250.