From the teapot effect to tap-triggered self-wetting: a 3D self-driving sieve for whole blood filtration

Achieving passive microparticle filtration with micropore membranes is challenging due to the capillary pinning effect of the membranes. Inspired by the teapot effect that occurs when liquid (tea) is poured from a teapot spout, we proposed a tap-triggered self-wetting strategy and utilized the method with a 3D sieve to filter rare cells. First, a 3D-printed polymer tap-trigger microstructure was implemented. As a result, the 3 µm micropore membrane gating threshold (the pressure needed to open the micropores) was lowered from above 3000 to 80 Pa by the tap-trigger microstructure that facilated the liquid leakage and spreading to self-wet more membrane area in a positive feedback loop. Then, we implemented a 3D cone-shaped cell sieve with tap-trigger microstructures. Driven by gravity, the sieve performed at a high throughput above 20 mL/min (DPBS), while the micropore size and porosity were 3 µm and 14.1%, respectively. We further filtered leukocytes from whole blood samples with the proposed new 3D sieve, and the method was compared with the traditional method of leukocyte isolation by chemically removing red blood cells. The device exhibited comparable leukocyte purity but a higher platelet removal rate and lower leukocyte simulation level, facilitating downstream single-cell analysis. The key results indicated that the tap-triggered self-wetting strategy could significantly improve the performance of passive microparticle filtration.