Contactless conductivity detection for analytical techniques: Developments from 2016 to 2018

The publications concerning capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection for the 2‐year period from mid‐2016 to mid‐2018 are covered in this update to the earlier reviews of the series. Relatively few reports on fundamental investigations or new designs have appeared in the literature in this time interval, but the development of new applications with the detection method has continued strongly. Most often, contactless conductivity measurements have been employed for the detection of inorganic or small organic ions in conventional capillary electrophoresis, less often in microchip electrophoresis. A number of other uses, such as detection in chromatography or the gauging of bubbles in streams have also been reported.     

生化样本的芯片介电电泳富集和分离研究进展

芯片介电电泳技术是以介电电泳(DEP)分离原理和微机电加工技术为依托发展起来的可用于生化样品分析的新型分析技术.本文概述了芯片介电电泳技术的发展和DEP芯片分析系统的构成,并以DEP操控模式为切入点,介绍了芯片介电电泳在生化样品分析中的应用情况.     

Continuous dielectrophoretic particle separation via isomotive dielectrophoresis with bifurcating stagnation flow

We present a novel technique for continuous label‐free separation of particles based on their dielectrophoretic crossover frequencies. Our technique relies on our unique microfluidic geometry which performs hydrodynamic focusing, generates a stagnation flow with two outlets, and simultaneously produces an isomotive dielectrophoretic field via wall‐situated electrodes. To perform particle separation, we hydrodynamically focus particles onto stagnation streamlines and use isomotive dielectrophoretic force to nudge the particles off these streamlines and direct them into appropriate outlets. Focusing particles onto stagnation streamlines obviates the need for large forces to be applied to the particles and therefore increases system throughput. The use of isomotive (spatially uniform) dielectrophoretic force increases system reliability. To guide designers, we develop and describe a simple scaling model for the particle separation dynamics of our technique. The model predicts the range of particle sizes that can be separated as well as the processing rate that can be achieved as a function of system design parameters: channel size, flow rate, and applied potential. Finally, as a proof‐of‐principle, we use this technique to separate polystyrene bead and cell mixtures of the same diameters as well as mixtures of both particles with varying diameters.     

In Situ Liquid SAXS Studies on the Early Stage of Calcium Carbonate Formation

Calcium carbonate is a model system to investigate the mechanism of solid formation by precipitation from solutions, and it is often considered in the debated classical and nonclassical nucleation mechanism. Despite the great scientific relevance of calcium carbonate in different scientific areas, little is known about the early stage of its formation. Therefore, contactless devices are designed that are capable of providing informative investigations on the early stages of the precipitation pathway of calcium carbonate in supersaturated solutions using classical scattering methods such as wide‐angle X‐ray scattering (WAXS) and small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS) techniques. In particular, SAXS is exploited for investigating the size of entities formed from supersaturated solutions before the critical conditions for amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) nucleation are attained. The saturation level is controlled and kept constant by mixing four diluted solutions (i.e., NaOH, CaCl₂, NaHCO₃, H₂O) at constant T and pH. The scattering data are collected on a liquid jet generated about 75 s after the mixing point. The data are modeled using parametric statistical models providing insight about the size distribution of denser matter in the liquid jet. Theoretical implications on the early stage of solid formation pathway are inferred.     

基于非接触电导检测和在线富集技术快速灵敏检测土壤中速效磷

针对土壤中速效磷的快速检测需求,建立了基于非接触电导检测和场放大进样在线富集技术的毛细管电泳分离检测土壤中水溶性磷酸盐的分析方法。对影响分离检测效果的实验条件（电泳运行液组成、pH值、分离电压、进样电压和时间）进行了考察和优化。采用毛细管区带电泳模式,以35 mmol/L乙酸 - 2 mmol/L乙酸铵溶液为电泳运行液,负高压分离（－14 kV）和场放大进样（－11 kV × 10 s）,磷酸根离子在8 min内可获良好分离和灵敏检测,检出限为5 μg/L,线性范围为16～800 μg/L。研究表明放大进样在线富集技术使检测灵敏度得到显著提高,富集因子可达580倍。日内和日间相对标准偏差（RSD）小于5.0%。土壤中共存的常见无机阴离子（Cl－、SO2?442-、NO?33-）、有机基质和浸出液基体颜色不干扰速效磷的测定,表现出较强的抗干扰能力。该方法无需复杂的前处理即可直接进样分析,具有简单快速、灵敏高效、分析成本低的优点。对实际土壤样品和国标土壤样品中的速效磷进行检测,检测结果与标准方法一致。     

Theoretical and experimental analysis of negative dielectrophoresis-induced particle trajectories

Many biomedical analysis applications require trapping and manipulating single cells and cell clusters within microfluidic devices. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is a label-free technique that can achieve flexible cell trapping, without physical barriers, using electric field gradients created in the device by an electrode microarray. Little is known about how fluid flow forces created by the electrodes, such as thermally driven convection and electroosmosis, affect DEP-based cell capture under high conductance media conditions that simulate physiologically relevant fluids such as blood or plasma. Here, we compare theoretical trajectories of particles under the influence of negative DEP (nDEP) with observed trajectories of real particles in a high conductance buffer. We used 10-µm diameter polystyrene beads as model cells and tracked their trajectories in the DEP microfluidic chip. The theoretical nDEP trajectories were in close agreement with the observed particle behavior. This agreement indicates that the movement of the particles was highly dominated by the DEP force and that contributions from thermal- and electroosmotic-driven flows were negligible under these experimental conditions. The analysis protocol developed here offers a strategy that can be applied to future studies with different applied voltages, frequencies, conductivities, and polarization properties of the targeted particles and surrounding medium. These findings motivate further DEP device development to manipulate particle trajectories for trapping applications.     

Numerical characterization of inter-core coalescence by AC dielectrophoresis in double-emulsion droplets

The utilization of an alternating current electric field provides a good means to achieve controlled coalescence between paired inner cores encapsulated in water-in-oil-in-water double-emulsion (DE) droplets. Although previous studies have experimentally determined the conditions under which inter-core electrokinetic fusion occurs, the transient interfacial dielectrophoretic (DEP) dynamics key to understand the underlying fluid mechanics is still unclear from a physical point of view. By coupling DEP motion of two-phase flow to phase-field formulation, bulk-coupled numerical simulations are conducted to characterize the spatial–temporal evolution of the surface charge wave and the resulting nonlinear electrical force induced at both the core/shell and medium/shell oil/water interfaces. The effect of interfacial charge relaxation and droplet geometry on inter-core attractive dipolar interaction is investigated within a wide parametric space, and four distinct device operation modes, including normal inter-core fusion, shell elongation, partial core leakage, and complete core release, are well distinguished from one another by flow regime argumentation. Our results herein reveal for the first time the hitherto unknown transient electrohydrodynamic fluid motion of DE droplet driven by Maxwell–Wagner structural polarization. The dynamic simulation method proposed in present study points out an effective outlet to predict the nonlinear electrokinetic behavior of multicore DE droplets for realizing a more controlled triggering of microscale reactions for a wide range of applications in drug discovery, skin care, and food industry.     

Stepped gradients on polymeric monolithic columns by photoinitiated grafting

The surface of polymethacrylate monoliths was functionalized by a post‐polymerization modification, by means of a novel photo‐initiated graft procedure where the charged monomer, sulfopropyl methacrylate, was controllably grafted stepwise, i.e. with incremental graft energies. The grafting approach was optimized using scanning capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection. The effect of the localized ion exchange capacity and resultant gradient stationary phase upon ion‐exchange chromatographic retention, selectivity, and performance was investigated, and compared to a homogeneously grafted (isotropic) column. The gradient column provided reduced peak widths at half height for both cationic analytes, with a reduction of 34 and 33%, respectively, when compared to the isotropic column.     

Numerical investigation of multi-beam laser heterodyne measurement with ultra-precision for linear expansion coefficient of metal based on oscillating mirror modulation

This paper proposes a novel method of multi-beam laser heterodyne measurement for metal linear expansion coefficient. Based on the Doppler effect and heterodyne technology, the information is loaded of length variation to the frequency difference of the multi-beam laser heterodyne signal by the frequency modulation of the oscillating mirror, this method can obtain many values of length variation caused by temperature variation after the multi-beam laser heterodyne signal demodulation simultaneously. Processing these values by weighted-average, it can obtain length variation accurately, and eventually obtain the value of linear expansion coefficient of metal by the calculation. This novel method is used to simulate measurement for linear expansion coefficient of metal rod under different temperatures by MATLAB, the obtained result shows that the relative measurement error of this method is just 0.4%.     

基于非接触电导检测的PCR液滴检测芯片的研究

数字PCR是继实时定量PCR之后新兴发展起来的一种绝对定量分析技术,广泛应用于疾病早期检测诊断和微生物检测分析等领域。然而,在数字PCR的微反应器检测环节,常规的光学检测方法需要复杂的光学设备,应用环境有限,成本高。因此研究了一种基于非接触电导检测的PCR液滴检测芯片,用电导检测取代传统的光学检测,有效降低了数字PCR结果读出系统的成本。通过优化电极结构与排布,采用三电极平行3D电极结构,减小了相对误差,提高了灵敏度,实现了无标记的PCR反应液滴阴性阳性比例检测。在DNA模板浓度为0.5×10⁴～3×10⁴ copies/μL内实现了良好的相关性(r²=0.998),检测通量可达100个/秒。