Novel Materials and Designs for Cell Separation by Acoustofluidics
(2014) EEM820 20141Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Abstract
- Novel materials in microfluidics can enable innovative applications, price reductions, higher efficiency, and increased availability. In this thesis, I examine polymer materials for acoustofluidic applications, and find several functioning, and promising, materials and designs.
Microfluidics involves manipulating small volumes of fluids for novel applications, and acoustofluidics describes the application of ultrasound to microfluidics. This technique puts certain restraints on the choice of materials. In acoustofluidics, the material is an integral part of the function of the device, and since the field’s inception the material of choice has mainly been hard materials like silicon and glass. Their use is accompanied by high costs and... (More) - Novel materials in microfluidics can enable innovative applications, price reductions, higher efficiency, and increased availability. In this thesis, I examine polymer materials for acoustofluidic applications, and find several functioning, and promising, materials and designs.
Microfluidics involves manipulating small volumes of fluids for novel applications, and acoustofluidics describes the application of ultrasound to microfluidics. This technique puts certain restraints on the choice of materials. In acoustofluidics, the material is an integral part of the function of the device, and since the field’s inception the material of choice has mainly been hard materials like silicon and glass. Their use is accompanied by high costs and complicated processes. Polymers do not generally possess the same acoustic properties as these harder materials. Therefore polymers need to be tested, and optimized, to work effectively.
In this thesis I decided to investigate a few specific polymers and designs of acoustofluidic devices in order to evaluate their viability and performance. Hopefully, my insights can be generalized to other polymers as well. I designed, fabricated, and tested, chips made from three different materials: cyclic olefin copolymer (COP), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and polystyrene (PS). All chips were designed with wavelength-matched air channels on both sides of a straight fluid channel.
I found that all three polymers could successfully be applied in the construction of acoustofluidic devices. I observed acoustic focusing in all chips that were made without physical defects, with varying success and efficiency depending on material and design. Chips of COP, PMMA, and PS showed concentrated central focusing of polystyrene particles at low flow speeds (5-25 μl/min) from a resonance between air channels. Several problems persist and remain to be solved before polymers can replace traditional materials, problems such as fabrication, design, optimization, and heating of the chip.
These findings prove that it is possible to use polymers in a range of acoustofluidic applications. Their use can accelerate research and enable cheaper commercial devices. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/4438156
- author
- Adler, Pontus LU
- supervisor
-
- Pelle Ohlsson LU
- Mikael Evander LU
- organization
- course
- EEM820 20141
- year
- 2014
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- language
- English
- additional info
- 2014-01
- id
- 4438156
- date added to LUP
- 2014-05-16 11:40:38
- date last changed
- 2015-10-08 09:52:14
@misc{4438156,
abstract = {{Novel materials in microfluidics can enable innovative applications, price reductions, higher efficiency, and increased availability. In this thesis, I examine polymer materials for acoustofluidic applications, and find several functioning, and promising, materials and designs.
Microfluidics involves manipulating small volumes of fluids for novel applications, and acoustofluidics describes the application of ultrasound to microfluidics. This technique puts certain restraints on the choice of materials. In acoustofluidics, the material is an integral part of the function of the device, and since the field’s inception the material of choice has mainly been hard materials like silicon and glass. Their use is accompanied by high costs and complicated processes. Polymers do not generally possess the same acoustic properties as these harder materials. Therefore polymers need to be tested, and optimized, to work effectively.
In this thesis I decided to investigate a few specific polymers and designs of acoustofluidic devices in order to evaluate their viability and performance. Hopefully, my insights can be generalized to other polymers as well. I designed, fabricated, and tested, chips made from three different materials: cyclic olefin copolymer (COP), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and polystyrene (PS). All chips were designed with wavelength-matched air channels on both sides of a straight fluid channel.
I found that all three polymers could successfully be applied in the construction of acoustofluidic devices. I observed acoustic focusing in all chips that were made without physical defects, with varying success and efficiency depending on material and design. Chips of COP, PMMA, and PS showed concentrated central focusing of polystyrene particles at low flow speeds (5-25 μl/min) from a resonance between air channels. Several problems persist and remain to be solved before polymers can replace traditional materials, problems such as fabrication, design, optimization, and heating of the chip.
These findings prove that it is possible to use polymers in a range of acoustofluidic applications. Their use can accelerate research and enable cheaper commercial devices.}},
author = {{Adler, Pontus}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Novel Materials and Designs for Cell Separation by Acoustofluidics}},
year = {{2014}},
}