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Orbiting magnetic microbeads enable rapid microfluidic mixing

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Abstract

We use three-dimensional numerical simulations and experiments to examine microfluidic mixing induced by orbiting magnetic microbeads in a microfluidic channel. We show that orbiting microbeads can lead to rapid fluid mixing in low Reynolds number flow, and identify two distinct mixing mechanisms. Bulk advection of fluid across the channel occurs due to the flow pattern that is developed when the ratio of flow velocity to bead velocity is low, and leads to rapid mixing. At higher velocity ratios, dispersion of small amounts of fluid across the channel occurs and results in increased mixing. We use simulations to investigate the effect of system parameters on the distance required to achieve a desired mixing level. We develop an experimental continuous-flow device and use it to validate our simulations and to demonstrate rapid microfluidic mixing. This device has the flexibility to also be applied to a mixing chamber or to stop-flow applications for rapid and controllable mixing. In addition to rapid mixing, the use of orbiting magnetic microbeads has the added benefit that functionalized microbeads can be used to capture particles from the fluid solution during mixing, and that they can be extracted from the device for analysis, thus serving multiple functionalities in a single device.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support from the National Science Foundation (CBET-1159726) and the US Department of Agriculture (2014-67017-21703) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Matthew Ballard, Drew Owen, Zachary Grant Mills, Peter J. Hesketh & Alexander Alexeev

  2. Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Drew Owen & Peter J. Hesketh

Authors
  1. Matthew Ballard
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  2. Drew Owen
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  3. Zachary Grant Mills
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  4. Peter J. Hesketh
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  5. Alexander Alexeev
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Correspondence to Alexander Alexeev.

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Ballard, M., Owen, D., Mills, Z.G. et al. Orbiting magnetic microbeads enable rapid microfluidic mixing. Microfluid Nanofluid 20, 88 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-016-1750-1

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