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Continuous separation of non-magnetic particles inside ferrofluids

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Abstract

We present a novel and label-free continuous flow non-magnetic microparticle separation scheme in a microfluidic device under static magnetic fields. The separation process is conducted inside water-based ferrofluids. We exploit the difference in particle sizes to achieve binary separation of microparticles with high throughput. We demonstrate size-based separation (1 and 9.9 μm, 1.9 and 9.9 μm, 3.1 and 9.9 μm) of microparticles with a minimum of 105 particles/h throughput and close to 100% separation efficiency.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Gareth Sheppard for his help on making the masks. This research was financially supported by the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Georgia.

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Correspondence to Leidong Mao.

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Zhu, T., Marrero, F. & Mao, L. Continuous separation of non-magnetic particles inside ferrofluids. Microfluid Nanofluid 9, 1003–1009 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-010-0616-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-010-0616-1

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