Rosaria Ferrigno

Magnetophoretic manipulation in microsystem using carbonyl iron-polydimethylsiloxane microstructures.

This paper reports the use of a recent composite material, noted hereafter i-PDMS, made of carbonyl iron microparticles mixed in a PolyDiMethylSiloxane (PDMS) matrix, for magnetophoretic functions such as capture and separation of magnetic species. We demonstrated that this composite which combine the advantages of both components, can locally generate high gradients of magnetic field when placed between two permanent magnets. After evaluating the magnetic susceptibility of the material as a function of the doping ratio, we investigated the molding resolution offered by i-PDMS to obtain microstructures of various sizes and shapes. Then, we implemented 500 μm i-PDMS microstructures in a microfluidic channel and studied the influence of flow rate on the deviation and trapping of superparamagnetic beads flowing at the neighborhood of the composite material. We characterized the attraction of the magnetic composite by measuring the distance from the i-PDMS microstructure, at which the beads are either deviated or captured. Finally, we demonstrated the interest of i-PDMS to perform magnetophoretic functions in microsystems for biological applications by performing capture of magnetically labeled cells.

Dielectrophoretic capture of low abundance cell population using thick electrodes

Enrichment of rare cell populations such as Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) is a critical step before performing analysis. This paper presents a polymeric microfluidic device with integrated thick Carbon-PolyDimethylSiloxane composite (C-PDMS) electrodes designed to carry out dielectrophoretic (DEP) trapping of low abundance biological cells. Such conductive composite material presents advantages over metallic structures. Indeed, as it combines properties of both the matrix and doping particles, C-PDMS allows the easy and fast integration of conductive microstructures using a soft-lithography approach while preserving O2 plasma bonding properties of PDMS substrate and avoiding a cumbersome alignment procedure. Here, we first performed numerical simulations to demonstrate the advantage of such thick C-PDMS electrodes over a coplanar electrode configuration. It is well established that dielectrophoretic force ([Formula: see text]) decreases quickly as the distance from the electrode surface increases resulting in coplanar configuration to a low trapping efficiency at high flow rate. Here, we showed quantitatively that by using electrodes as thick as a microchannel height, it is possible to extend the DEP force influence in the whole volume of the channel compared to coplanar electrode configuration and maintaining high trapping efficiency while increasing the throughput. This model was then used to numerically optimize a thick C-PDMS electrode configuration in terms of trapping efficiency. Then, optimized microfluidic configurations were fabricated and tested at various flow rates for the trapping of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line. We reached trapping efficiencies of 97% at 20 μl/h and 78.7% at 80 μl/h, for 100 μm thick electrodes. Finally, we applied our device to the separation and localized trapping of CTCs (MDA-MB-231) from a red blood cells sample (concentration ratio of 1:10).

PCB-based integration of electrochemiluminescence detection for microfluidic systems.

This communication presents an instrumental development based on the printed circuit board (PCB) technology to integrate electrochemiluminescence (ECL) analysis in microfluidic systems. PCB gold macro- (10 mm2) and micro- (0.09 mm2) electrodes and two ECL microfluidic devices are designed, fabricated and tested via luminol ECL detection. Potential modulation is performed between 0.7 and 0 V vs. Ag/AgCl for luminol oxidation, thus giving rise to on/off ECL responses in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. Synchronous detection is adopted to allow weak ECL signal recovery at a very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The detection limit obtained with the two ECL microfluidic devices is 50 nM and 100 nM H2O2 for macroelectrodes and microelectrodes, respectively.

Investigation of the Mixing Efficiency of a Chaotic Micromixer Using Thermal Lens Spectrometry

This work investigates the efficiency of a chaotic micromixer using thermal lens spectrometry. The outlet of the mixing device was connected to a thermal lens detection head integrating the probe beam optical fibers and the sample capillary. The chaotic micromixer consisted of a Y-shaped poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microchip in which ribbed herringbone microstructures were etched on the floor of the main channel. Due to the solvent composition dependence of the thermal lens response, the photothermal method was shown to be highly sensitive to nonhomogeneous mixing compared to fluorescence detection. The apparatus was applied to the determination of Fe2+ with 1,10-phenanthroline using flow injection analysis; a limit of detection of 11 μg L−1 of iron was obtained.

Electrophoresis Poly(Dimethylsiloxane)/Glass Chips with Integrated Active Cooling for Quantification of Amino Acids

Abstract The objective of this work was to develop and characterize a poly(dimethylsiloxane) device with an integrated active cooling function able to carry out capillary electrophoresis separations. Polymer-based microdevices are indispensable to recent advances in biomedical analysis. In particular, they have been applied to many microfluidic platforms owing to their low cost, ease of fabrication, and versatility in preparing complex microstructures. However, when applied to capillary electrophoresis separations, polymer microfluidic structures present an inherent disadvantage compared to glass and Si structures; they have a lower thermal conductivity than glass and Si. Although miniaturized devices allow operation at high electric fields, they face separation efficiency limitations due to Joule heating. There is, therefore, a strong need of developing capillary electrophoresis microfluidic structures with active cooling in order to operate at a higher electric field and potentially increase separation efficiency in these microdevices. A poly(dimethylsiloxane)/glass hybrid microfluidic capillary electrophoresis system is presented, where Joule heating was minimized by using an integrated active cooling function. Two poly(dimethylsiloxane) slabs with embedded microfluidic structures were irreversibly sealed on both sides of a thin glass slide. The top poly(dimethylsiloxane) slab was used to carry out capillary electrophoresis separations, whereas the bottom poly(dimethylsiloxane) slab was employed to cool down the buffer solution used during the capillary electrophoresis separation. As demonstrated on current versus voltage plots and on capillary electrophoresis electropherograms, capillary electrophoresis separation was able to be operated at a higher electric field when using the cooling function. The cooling rate was adjustable by varying the flow rate and the initial temperature of the liquid flowing in the cooling microfluidic structure.

Anisotropic ferromagnetic polymer: A first step for their implementation in microfluidic systems

Here we report on the influence of anisotropic microstructure on the performances of magnetically soft micro-patterns intended to integrate microfluidic systems. These micro-patterns are made of a composite obtained by mixing carbonyl iron particles with polydimethylsiloxane, which offers practical integration advantages. We investigated a wide range of magnetic particle loadings, from 10wt% to 83wt%, reaching magnetization as high as 630 kA/m. A homogeneous field was applied during the polymer’s cross-linking phase so that to obtain a 1D arrangement of the particles in the solidified polymer, along the field direction. Here we present the results obtained for square-based micro-pillars prepared under a magnetic field applied along one of its diagonal. We assessed the magnetic anisotropy owing to the particles’ spatial arrangement by comparing the magnetization processes along the two diagonals of the micro-pillar’s base. The magnetic susceptibilities along the two directions differ from a factor greater ...

Determination of Red Blood Cell fatigue using electrodeformation

In this work, we used electrodeformation (ED) [1] as a new strategy to evaluate the fatigue of healthy human Red Blood Cells (RBCs). Using dielectrophoresis (DEP) forces, we submitted RBCs to a series of elongation and relaxation cycles to model their mechanical stress in the blood circulation and we used their relaxation time as a marker to evaluate their fatigue. In this paper, we first investigated the dependency of the RBC mechanical response upon the experimental parameters, such as the viscosity ηout of the external medium, the amplitude ΔV of the applied voltage, the duration of the solicitation tsol, the number of solicitations N as well as the resting time trest between two solicitations. The impact of these parameters was evaluated through the analysis of both RBC deformation index D and relaxation time τ. Finally, the optimization of these parameters was used to monitor RBC fatigue.

A new microfluidic device for electric lysis and separation of cells

This paper demonstrates the potential use of a new microfluidic device embedding thick electrodes for cell lysis and cell separation applications. The system consists of a microfluidic channel featuring conductive walls made of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix mixed with carbon nanoparticles. Cell lysis was performed electrically by applying square pulses across the channel width, which was monitored by fluorimetry. Lysed and unlysed cells showed different dielectrophoretic behavior under appropriate experimental conditions, which suggests that the developed device is suitable to perform both cell lysis and subsequent sorting of viable and dead cells.

Combining microfluidics and electrochemical detection

This paper describes two configurations that integrate electrochemical detection into microfluidic devices. The first configuration is a low-cost approach based on the use of PCB technology. This device was applied to electrochemiluminescence detection. The second configuration was used to carry out amperometric quantification of electroactive species using a serial dilution microfluidic system.

Implementation of Electrochemiluminescence Microanalysis in PCB Technology

We present an instrumental development to implement electrochemiluminescence (ECL) microanalysis using printed circuit board (PCB) technology. PCB gold macro- (10 mm2) and micro- (0.09 mm2) electrodes and two ECL microfluidic devices are designed, fabricated and tested via luminol ECL detection. Potential modulation is performed between 0.7 and 0 V vs. Ag/AgCl for luminol oxidation, thus giving rise to on/off ECL responses in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. Synchronous detection is adopted to allow weak ECL signal recovery at a very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The detection limit obtained with the two ECL microfluidic devices is 50 nM and 100 nM H2O2 for macroelectrodes and microelectrodes, respectively.