Transfer of Microparticles across Laminar Streams from Non-Newtonian to Newtonian Fluid

Engineering inertial lift forces and elastic lift forces is explored to transfer microparticles across laminar streams from non-Newtonian to Newtonian fluid. A co-stream of non-Newtonian flow loaded with microparticles (9.9 and 2.0 μm in diameter) and a Newtonian carrier medium flow in a straight rectangular conduit is devised. The elastic lift forces present in the non-Newtonian fluid, undeterred by particle-particle interaction, successfully pass most of the larger (9.9 μm) particles over to the Newtonian fluid. The Newtonian fluid takes over the larger particles and focus them on the equilibrium position, separating the larger particles from the smaller particles. This mechanism enabled processing of densely suspended particle samples. The method offers dilution-free (for number densities up to 10 000 μL^-1), high throughput (6700 beads/s), and highly efficient (>99% recovery rate, >97% purity) particle separation operated over a wide range of flow rate (2 orders of magnitude).