Ultrasonic manipulation of magnetic particles in a microfluidic channel

In microfludic biosensor applications, many kinds of magnetic particles have been employed due to their bioaffinity property, so the appropriate manipulation of magnetic microparticles is important. In this work, we demonstrated the alignment of magnetic beads (diameter 2.8 μm) and nanowires (length ≤ 6 μm & diameter ≈ 50 nm) using ultrasonic standing wave (USW) in a steel-acrylic microfluidic channel (660 μm width) in the aim of concentrating them to a sensor area to enhance the performance of a sensor. Ultrasonic standing wave field generates the radiation force to concentrate microparticles at the pressure nodal planes. To generate a standing wave inside the channel, an ultrasound of 2.25 MHz resonance frequency was applied as a resonance frequency of the channel. Moreover, it was demonstrated here that the position of the aligned magnetic particles could be controlled by changing the applied frequency. These successful alignment and position control can be a milestone for future research which targets to improve the sensitivity of microfluidic sensors using magnetic particles.