Dynamic control of particle separation in deterministic lateral displacement separator with viscoelastic fluids

Yuke Li; Hongna Zhang; Yongyao Li; Xiaobin Li; Jian Wu; Shizhi Qian; Fengchen Li

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-21827-7

Dynamic control of particle separation in deterministic lateral displacement separator with viscoelastic fluids

Sci Rep. 2018 Feb 26;8(1):3618. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-21827-7.

Authors

Yuke Li¹, Hongna Zhang^{2

3}, Yongyao Li¹, Xiaobin Li⁴, Jian Wu¹, Shizhi Qian⁵, Fengchen Li⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China.
² School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China. zhanghn@hit.edu.cn.
³ Sino-French Institute of Nuclear Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, 519000, China. zhanghn@hit.edu.cn.
⁴ Sino-French Institute of Nuclear Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, 519000, China.
⁵ Institute of Micro/Nanotechnology, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, 23529, USA.
⁶ Sino-French Institute of Nuclear Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, 519000, China. lifch6@mail.sysu.edu.cn.

Abstract

We proposed an innovative method to achieve dynamic control of particle separation by employing viscoelastic fluids in deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) arrays. The effects of shear-thinning and elasticity of working fluids on the critical separation size in DLD arrays are investigated. It is observed that each effect can lead to the variation of the critical separation size by approximately 40%. Since the elasticity strength of the fluid is related to the shear rate, the dynamic control can for the first time be easily realized through tuning the flow rate in microchannels.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't