Dielectrophoretic manipulation of particles

Abstract

We have demonstrated that, in general, the dielectrophoretic (DEP) force experienced by a particle has two components. The first depends upon inhomogeneities in the applied electrical field strength and upon the in-phase part of the resultant dipole moment induced in the particle and can be identified with the conventional dielectrophoretic (cDEP) force. The second relates to nonuniformities in the phase distribution of the applied field and to the out-of-phase part of the induced dipole moment. A nonuniform phase distribution corresponds to a field that travels through space. This second force component gives rise to traveling-wave dielectrophoresis (twDEP). In this paper, we describe several electrode configurations designed to produce electric fields capable of inducing cDEP and twDEP forces for the purpose of manipulating particles. Using DS19 Friend murine erythroleukemia cells as test particles having well-characterized dielectric properties, we investigated the electrokinetic behaviors for these electrodes as a function of frequency and electrode excitation mode. Several characteristic cell electrokinetic behaviors were identified, including trapping, linear motion, levitation, and circulation of the cells, depending on the excitation characteristics of the electrodes and the cell dielectric properties. We describe these findings and rationalize them in terms of the field distributions produced by the electrodes, the particle dielectric properties, and generalized dielectrophoresis theory. The biotechnological applications of dielectrophoretic manipulation are then discussed.