Bacterial handling under the influence of non-uniform electric fields: dielectrophoretic and electrohydrodynamic effects

Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências

Flavio H. Fernádez-morales²  Julio E. Duarte²  Josep Samitier-martí¹ 

[1] ,Seccional Duitama Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia Grupo de Energía y Aplicación de Nuevas Tecnologías (GEANT), Duitama Boyacá ,Colombia

关键词: dielectrophoresis;    electrohydrodynamic effects;    biochips;    bacterial handling;    dieletroforese;    efeitos eletro-hidrodinâmicos;    biochips;    manuseio de bactérias;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S0001-37652008000400004

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

This paper describes the modeling and experimental verification of a castellated microelectrode array intended tohandle biocells, based on common dielectrophoresis. The proposed microsystem was developed employing platinumelectrodes deposited by lift-off, silicon micromachining, and photoresin patterning techniques. Having fabricated the microdevice it was tested employing Escherichia coli as bioparticle model. Positive dielectrophoresis could be verified with the selected cells for frequencies above 100 kHz, and electrohydrodynamic effects were observed as the dominant phenomena when working at lower frequencies. As a result, negative dielectrophoresis could not be observed because its occurrence overlaps with electrohydrodynamic effects; i.e. the viscous drag force acting on the particles is greater than the dielectrophoretic force at frequencies where negative dielectrophoresis should occur. The experiments illustrate the convenience of this kind of microdevices to micro handling biological objects, opening the possibility for using these microarrays with other bioparticles. Additionally, liquid motion as a result of electrohydrodynamic effects must be taken into account when designing bioparticle micromanipulators, and could be used as mechanism to clean the electrode surfaces, that is one of the most important problems related to this kind of devices.

【 授权许可】

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