Lab on Chip Microfluidic Buried Channel Architectures for Cell Sorting Applications

Dabeer, Afshan

Abstract

Microfluidics is a fascinating field of science that deals with manipulating small amounts of fluids and particles on the microscale. It has a wide range of applications, from microbiology to microelectronics. Microfluidic devices separate or mix microparticles and nanoparticles in small volumes of fluid. We demonstrate the experiment of microparticle filtration in the Poly Dimethyl Siloxane (PDMS) microfluidic device with two buried channel architectures (connected by a common reservoir) and (Transition Electron Microscope) TEM grid filter. We developed the buried channels by dissolving 3D-printed (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) ABS ridges designs with acetone inside PDMS. The syringe pump calibration enables the controlled flow of microparticles in deionized water. In this microfluidic device, the step-by-step filtration processes filter microparticles of diameter sizes (5μm, 10μm and 20μm) sequentially through a combination of the under-gravity particle separation, Inertial focusing and centrifugal force effect with particle mass incorporation. The TEM grid filter is outside the microfluidic device and is the last stage of filtration process of microparticles to sieve microparticles according to mesh hole size (10.5μm). We demonstrated a successful study with working buried microfluidic channels and TEM grid filtration without damaging mesh. This study demonstrated 90% polystyrene microparticle (comparative diameter sizes of cancer cells) filtration using this device. We have tested this prototype microfluidic device with polystyrene microparticles that aim for future use as an application of this device in separating cancer cells from blood cells.

Citation

Dabeer, A. (2025). Lab on Chip Microfluidic Buried Channel Architectures for Cell Sorting Applications. (Thesis). University of Hull. https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/5292322

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Jul 31, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 7, 2025
• Keywords: Microfluidic; 3D printing; Buried Channel architecture; Syringe pump; filtration; TEM grid filter; microparticles; centrifugal force
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/5292322
• Additional Information: Physics; Faculty of Science and Engineering; University of Hull
• Award Date: Jun 3, 2025