Universal motion of mirror-symmetric microparticles in confined Stokes flow

Journal Article (2020)
Author(s)

Rumen Georgiev (TU Delft - Intensified Reaction and Separation Systems)

Sara O. Toscano (Student TU Delft)

William Uspal (University of Hawaii at Manoa)

Bram Bet (Universiteit Utrecht)

Sela Samin (Universiteit Utrecht)

René Van van Roij (Universiteit Utrecht)

Hüseyin Burak Eral (TU Delft - Intensified Reaction and Separation Systems, Universiteit Utrecht)

Research Group
Intensified Reaction and Separation Systems
Copyright
© 2020 R.N. Georgiev, Sara O. Toscano, William E. Uspal, Bram Bet, Sela Samin, René van Roij, H.B. Eral
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2005068117
More Info
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Publication Year
2020
Language
English
Copyright
© 2020 R.N. Georgiev, Sara O. Toscano, William E. Uspal, Bram Bet, Sela Samin, René van Roij, H.B. Eral
Research Group
Intensified Reaction and Separation Systems
Issue number
36
Volume number
117
Pages (from-to)
21865-21872
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Abstract

Comprehensive understanding of particle motion in microfluidic devices is essential to unlock additional technologies for shape-based separation and sorting of microparticles like microplastics, cells, and crystal polymorphs. Such particles interact hydrodynamically with confining surfaces, thus altering their trajectories. These hydrodynamic interactions are shape dependent and can be tuned to guide a particle along a specific path. We produce strongly confined particles with various shapes in a shallow microfluidic channel via stop flow lithography. Regardless of their exact shape, particles with a single mirror plane have identical modes of motion: in-plane rotation and cross-stream translation along a bell-shaped path. Each mode has a characteristic time, determined by particle geometry. Furthermore, each particle trajectory can be scaled by its respective characteristic times onto two master curves. We propose minimalistic relations linking these timescales to particle shape. Together these master curves yield a trajectory universal to particles with a single mirror plane.