Sharif Digital Repository

The base of dielectrophoresis(DEP) technique has been demonstrated through electro-dynamic interactions between an applied non-uniform AC electric field and induced distributed dipoles within a polarized. In particle manipulation and/or separation using the DEP method, knowledge of precise DEP force of a particle is essential in designing a DEP device and improving its separation efficiency and accuracy. In most DEP studies related to particle manipulation and/or separation, however their absolute DEP forces remain unknown[2]. Insufficient information regarding the DEP behavior of particles can result in preventing a strategic maneuver for efficient particle manipulation and/or separation... 

The main goals of this research are design, simulation, and fabrication of a microfluidic system working based on dielectrophoresis. This research divided into two different parts, the first of which is the simulation of a microfluidic system, and second of which is an attempt for fabrication of microfluidic system. For the fabrication of the microfluidic system, different methods were used. In the simulation part, the enrichment of different particles was investigated, and the effects of different parameters on the enrichment were assessed. It was observed that as flow rate increases, the enrichment amount diminishes. Furthermore, as the microfluidic depth decreases, the enrichment amount... 

Microfluidics, employing fluids in structures with micrometer dimensions, is an emerging technology that has brought great opportunities to develop various devices including lab-on-a-chip systems. Lab-on-a-chip systems have the advantages of integrating several stages of different analytical methods, application in diverse fields, consumption of small volumes of samples, and portability. One of the crucial applications of lab-on-a-chip devices is sorting cells and biological particles, done by different methods. In separator devices, high separation efficiency and repeatability are critical. When a neutral particle is polarized in a non-uniform electric field, the dielectrophoresis force... 

The main purposes of this project are simulation, design, and fabrication of a microfluidic system based on dielectrophoresis (DEP) exploiting AC voltages for separation of microparticles. Generally, this project can be divided into two parts. First, the engineering section including design and fabrication of microchip, and second biological samples preparation for investigating the system performance. The main advantages of proposed system are eliminating joule heating, a significant problem in insulating based dielectrophoresis systems, overcoming problems related to metal contamination in biological samples, the main problem of conventional dielectrophoresis platforms, and removing... 

Separation of particles and cells is one of the most important and practical methods in fields such as biomedicine, medicine and industry. In microfluidics There are various methods for particles and cells separation According to the source of them, they can be categorised as active and passive techniques. Active techniques rely on an external force field. The most important advantage of this method is controlling the force on the particles during the experiment. However, the flow speed is always limited because particles must be exposed to the outer force field for sufficient duration to achieve effective functionality. passive techniques depend entirely on the channel geometry or intrinsic... 

The recent breakthroughs in the lab-on-a-chip technology will not be directly used as clinical devices unless the specific applications are carefully tested and certified. As there is a growing trend towards microfluidic devices for biomedical research, an active microfluidic device was developed. Common microfabrication methods were used to develop a microchip to separate and concentrate live and dead cells based on the dielectrophoresis phenomenon. Unique capabilities of the dielectrophoresis phenomenon make it a powerful tool for micro particle manipulation in micro scale. In this research, geometry for the mentioned purpose is designed and optimized. Three-dimensional microelectrodes are... 

% of human blood makes up of plasma, that this plasma is a rich source of proteins that can be used as biomarkers for a variety of clinical diseases and laboratory research, therefore, it is necessary that the plasma be separate by a high purity percentage. Using a centrifuge It is a common method used to separate plasma from blood, but because it requires large equipment and a large volume of blood, as well as stress caused by centrifugal force, increases the probability of damage to the biomarkers, so it has been tried today that Use methods that are easy to transport and require a small amount of blood. The idea of using the microfluidic device has been put forward for the purpose of... 

Wide utilization of nanomanipulation as a promising approach in microorganisms, nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) and assembly of nanostructures remarks the importance of nanostructures’ motion in electric fields. Despite of many reports on manipulation and assembly of nanowires (NWs) in non-uniform and alternating electric fields by dielectrophoresis, and also rotation of NWs in rotating electric fields, there is still a lack of knowledge on rotational and translational dynamics of metallic and dielectric NWs in uniform static electric fields. In this dissertation, we study the dynamics of silver (Ag) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) NWs, with diameters and lengths in the range of 40 to 100... 

In the presence of spatially non-uniform electric field, a dielectric object can experience a translational force which is known as Dielectrophoresis (DEP) force. DEP is one of the most applicable methods in sorting mechanism of different biological cells. Moreover accurately measuring the DEP force in single cell level can lead to a valuable knwoledge about the electrical properties of various cells.In this thesis, first, the other electrokinetic forces in which the Electro-Osmosis (EO) force is the important one, have to be eliminated. Regarding that this effect is strongly dependent on the frequency of external E field, we have applied the external electric field at appropriate frequency... 

In this study, the dynamics of microparticles in a straight microchannel in the presence of an inhomogeneous oscillating electric field have been simulated by the immersed boundary method in combination with the lattice Boltzmann Navier-Stokes solver and the lattice Boltzmann method for solving the Poisson equation. The effect of the electric field on the location and number of particle equilibrium positions have been examined. In the absence of the electric field, circular particles will migrate to two stable equilibrium positions. The site of these equilibrium positions depends on the particle size and the fluid flow rate and is independent of the particle density. In the case of negative... 

According to studies, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the world and millions of people die from this disease every year. Early diagnosis is one of the most important factors in controlling and treating the disease. The ability of circulating tumor cells to diagnose and monitor the disease has led many researchers to focus on studying and researching these cells in recent years. However, due to the fact that the concentration of this type of cells in the blood is very low, their isolation is associated with challenges. Various methods isolate CTCs based on physical, biological and other differences in characteristics. In this study, we investigate performance of a microfluidic... 

The recent breakthroughs in the lab-on-a-chip technology will not be directly used as clinical devices unless the specific applications are carefully tested and certified. As there is a growing trend towards microfluidic devices for biomedical research, an active microfluidic device was developed. Common microfabrication methods were used to develop a microchip to separate and concentrate exosome and particular cell based on the dielectrophoresis phenomenon. Unique capabilities of the dielectrophoresis phenomenon make it a powerful tool for micro particle manipulation in micro scale. In this research, geometry for the mentioned purpose is designed and optimized. Three-dimensional... 

Microfluidics is an emerging technology that has attracted lots of attention in recent years due to its remarkable capabilities. This technology that operates fluids in micron dimensions, has led to the emergence of lab-on-a-chip platforms that have the ability to perform one or more laboratory operations on a small scale. One of the most important applications of lab-on-a-chip devices is cell sorting which is done in various methods. In this study, we intend to provide a simple and practical solution for cell sorting by designing a comprehensive and optimized system. In this regard, we design a new generation of microfluidic devices, known as digital microfluidics, which has the ability to... 

Cancer is an abnormal growth of cells which is one of the major cause of worldwide’s mortality. Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) are rare cancer cells released from the primary or metastatic tumors and transported though the peripheral circulatory system and spreads in body and seize healthy organs. Early detection of CTCs can help in overtaking the cancer, hence isolation of CTCs is an essential step for many therapeutics. In spite of its clinical potential, the isolation and detection of CTCs has been a challenging task due to its rare presence amongst other blood cells (as low as 1–10 CTCs per billions of blood cells), similarity to white blood cell in size and also variability in terms of... 

Electrophoresis of colloidal and bio-particles, which is the motion of a charged particle under an electric field, is a powerful method for the characterization and separation of particles. Electrophoresis of particles could be in electrolyte and gel mediums. Additional drag force is exerted on the particle in a gel medium due to the 3D polymeric structure. Experimental research and molecular dynamics simulations have shown that the no-slip boundary condition is not valuable for many particles in micro and nano-devices. The Navier slip condition, which represents the amount of slip, must replace the no-boundary condition. Characterization of hydrophobicity for optimal design in microfluidic...