Semi-continuous dielectrophoretic separation at high throughput using printed circuit boards

Particle separation is an essential part of many processes. One mechanism to separate particles according to size, shape, or material properties is dielectrophoresis (DEP). DEP arises when a polarizable particle is immersed in an inhomogeneous electric field. DEP can attract microparticles toward the local field maxima or repulse them from these locations. In biotechnology and microfluidic devices, this is a well-described and established method to separate (bio-)particles. Increasing the throughput of DEP separators while maintaining their selectivity is a field of current research. In this study, we investigate two approaches to increase the overall throughput of an electrode-based DEP separator that uses selective trapping of particles. We studied how particle concentration affects the separation process by using two differently-sized graphite particles. We showed that concentrations up to 800 mg/L can be processed without decreasing the collection rate depending on the particle size. As a second approach to increase the throughput, parallelization in combination with two four-way valves, relays, and stepper motors was presented and successfully tested to continuously separate conducting from non-conducting particles. By demonstrating possible concentrations and enabling a semi-continuous process, this study brings the low-cost DEP setup based on printed circuit boards one step closer to real-world applications. The principle for semi-continuous processing is also applicable for other DEP devices that use trapping DEP.