Doctoral Dissertations

Ran Zhou

Abstract

"Microfluidics enables a diverse range of manipulations (e.g., focusing, separating, trapping, and enriching) of micrometer-sized objects, and has played an increasingly important role for applications that involve single cell biology and the detection and diagnosis of diseases. In microfluidic devices, methods that are commonly used to manipulate cells or particles include the utilization of hydrodynamic effects and externally applied field gradients that induce forces on cells/particles, such as electrical fields, optical fields, magnetic fields, and acoustic fields.

However, these conventional methods often involve complex designs or strongly depend on the properties of the flow medium or the interaction between the fluid and fluidic channels, so this dissertation aims to propose and demonstrate novel and low-cost techniques to fabricate microfluidic devices to separate microparticles with different sizes, materials and shapes by the optimized acoustic and magnetic fields. The first method is to utilize acoustic bubble-enhanced pinched flow for microparticle separation; the microfluidic separation of magnetic particles with soft magnetic microstructures is achieved in the second part; the third technique separates and focuses microparticles by multiphase ferrofluid flows; the fourth method realizes the fabrication and integration of microscale permanent magnets for particle separation in microfluidics; magnetic separation of microparticles by shape is proposed in the fifth technique.

The methods demonstrated in this dissertation not only address some of the limitations of conventional microdevices, but also provide simple and efficient method for the separation of microparticles and biological cells with different sizes, materials and shapes, and will benefit practical microfluidic platforms concerning micron sized particles/cells"--Abstract, page iv.

Advisor(s)

Wang, Cheng

Committee Member(s)

Isaac, Kakkattukuzhy M.
Chandrashekhara, K.
Homan, Kelly
Kim, Chang-Soo

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Mechanical Engineering

Sponsor(s)

Missouri University of Science and Technology. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Missouri University of Science and Technology. Department of Chemistry
Missouri University of Science and Technology. Center for Single Nanoparticle, Single Cell, and Single Molecule Monitoring

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Fall 2017

Journal article titles appearing in thesis/dissertation

  • Acoustic bubble enhanced pinched flow fractionation for microparticle separation
  • Microfluidic separation of magnetic particles with soft magnetic microstructures
  • Multiphase ferrofluid flows for micro-particle focusing and separation
  • Fabrication and integration of microscale permanent magnets for particle separation in microfluidics
  • Magnetic separation of microparticles by shape

Pagination

xvii, 142 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographic references.

Rights

© 2017 Ran Zhou, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 11249

Electronic OCLC #

1021857967

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