Hydrodynamic flow separation
Dean-flow based hydrodynamic flow focussing and separation techniques.
Microfluidic inertial hydrodynamic dean-flow focussing and separation
Sample purification and concentration are fundamental aspects of sample preparation. Microfluidic integration of these functions has been demonstrated with traditional approaches including sedimentation, centrifugal separation and filtration.
However implementation of all these approaches requires high precision and complex geometries and are often susceptible to blockage when used with real-world samples.
Passive microfluidic Dean-flow based inertial separation techniques employing secondary hydrodynamic flow effects which exploit the highly laminar, microfluidic flow regimes are being developed to achieve size-based micro-particle separation.
These techniques utilises the counter rotating flows created when fluids flow through a curved flow channel to hydrodynamically reposition (focus) suspended particles based on their size.
We are conducting research into application of these hydrodynamic separation techniques for real world samples for sample clean-up and concentration.