Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is a phenomenon in which a force is exerted on a dielectric particle when it is subjected to a non-uniform electric field. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] This force does not require the particle to be charged. All particles exhibit dielectrophoretic activity in the presence of electric fields. However, the strength of the force depends strongly on the medium and particles' electrical properties, on the particles' shape and size, as well as on the frequency of the electric field. Consequently, fields of a particular frequency can manipulate particles with great selectivity. This has allowed, for example, the separation of cells or the orientation and manipulation of nanoparticles [2] [7] and nanowires. [8] Furthermore, a study of the change in DEP force as a function of frequency can allow the electrical (or electrophysiological in the case of cells) properties of the particle to be elucidated.
Although the phenomenon we now call dielectrophoresis was described in passing as far back as the early 20th century, it was only subject to serious study, named and first understood by Herbert Pohl in the 1950s. [9] [10] Recently, dielectrophoresis has been revived due to its potential in the manipulation of microparticles, [2] [4] [5] [11] nanoparticles and cells.
Dielectrophoresis occurs when a polarizable particle is suspended in a non-uniform electric field. The electric field polarizes the particle, and the poles then experience a force along the field lines, which can be either attractive or repulsive according to the orientation on the dipole. Since the field is non-uniform, the pole experiencing the greatest electric field will dominate over the other, and the particle will move. The orientation of the dipole is dependent on the relative polarizability of the particle and medium, in accordance with Maxwell–Wagner–Sillars polarization. Since the direction of the force is dependent on field gradient rather than field direction, DEP will occur in AC as well as DC electric fields; polarization (and hence the direction of the force) will depend on the relative polarizabilities of particle and medium. If the particle moves in the direction of increasing electric field, the behavior is referred to as positive DEP (sometime pDEP), if acting to move the particle away from high field regions, it is known as negative DEP (or nDEP). As the relative polarizabilities of the particle and medium are frequency-dependent, varying the energizing signal and measuring the way in which the force changes can be used to determine the electrical properties of particles; this also allows the elimination of electrophoretic motion of particles due to inherent particle charge.
Phenomena associated with dielectrophoresis are electrorotation and traveling wave dielectrophoresis (TWDEP). These require complex signal generation equipment in order to create the required rotating or traveling electric fields, and as a result of this complexity have found less favor among researchers than conventional dielectrophoresis.
The simplest theoretical model is that of a homogeneous sphere surrounded by a conducting dielectric medium. [12] For a homogeneous sphere of radius and complex permittivity in a medium with complex permittivity the (time-averaged) DEP force is: [4]
The factor in curly brackets is known as the complex Clausius-Mossotti function [2] [4] [5] and contains all the frequency dependence of the DEP force. Where the particle consists of nested spheres – the most common example of which is the approximation of a spherical cell composed of an inner part (the cytoplasm) surrounded by an outer layer (the cell membrane) – then this can be represented by nested expressions for the shells and the way in which they interact, allowing the properties to be elucidated where there are sufficient parameters related to the number of unknowns being sought. For a more general field-aligned ellipsoid of radius and length with complex dielectric constant in a medium with complex dielectric constant the time-dependent dielectrophoretic force is given by: [4]
The complex dielectric constant is , where is the dielectric constant, is the electrical conductivity, is the field frequency, and is the imaginary unit. [2] [4] [5] This expression has been useful for approximating the dielectrophoretic behavior of particles such as red blood cells (as oblate spheroids) or long thin tubes (as prolate ellipsoids) allowing the approximation of the dielectrophoretic response of carbon nanotubes or tobacco mosaic viruses in suspension. These equations are accurate for particles when the electric field gradients are not very large (e.g., close to electrode edges) or when the particle is not moving along an axis in which the field gradient is zero (such as at the center of an axisymmetric electrode array), as the equations only take into account the dipole formed and not higher order polarization. [4] When the electric field gradients are large, or when there is a field null running through the center of the particle, higher order terms become relevant, [4] and result in higher forces. To be precise, the time-dependent equation only applies to lossless particles, because loss creates a lag between the field and the induced dipole. When averaged, the effect cancels out and the equation holds true for lossy particles as well. An equivalent time-averaged equation can be easily obtained by replacing E with Erms, or, for sinusoidal voltages by dividing the right hand side by 2. These models ignores the fact that cells have a complex internal structure and are heterogeneous. A multi-shell model in a low conducting medium can be used to obtain information of the membrane conductivity and the permittivity of the cytoplasm. [13] For a cell with a shell surrounding a homogeneous core with its surrounding medium considered as a layer, as seen in Figure 2, the overall dielectric response is obtained from a combination of the properties of the shell and core. [14]
where 1 is the core (in cellular terms, the cytoplasm), 2 is the shell (in a cell, the membrane). r1 is the radius from the centre of the sphere to the inside of the shell, and r2 is the radius from the centre of the sphere to the outside of the shell.
Dielectrophoresis can be used to manipulate, transport, separate and sort different types of particles. Since biological cells have dielectric properties, [15] [16] [17] dielectrophoresis has many medical applications. Instruments that separate cancer cells from healthy cells have been made. [18] Platelets have been separated from whole blood with a DEP-activated cell sorter. [19] Dielectrophoresis can be used to manipulate, transport, separate and sort different types of particles. DEP is being applied in fields such as medical diagnostics, drug discovery, cell therapeutics, and particle filtration.
DEP has been also used in conjunction with the semiconductor chip technology for the development of DEPArray technology (Menarini Silicon Biosystems) for the simultaneous management of thousands of cells in a microfluidic device. Single microelectrodes on the floor of a flow cell are managed by the CMOS chip to form thousands of "Dielectrophoretic Cages", each capable of capturing and moving one single cell under control of a routing software.
The most effort in studying DEP has been directed towards satisfying the unmet needs in the biomedical sciences.
As biological cells have dielectric properties, [15] [16] dielectrophoresis has many medical applications. Instruments capable of separating cancer cells from healthy cells have been made [18] [20] [21] [22] as well as isolating single cells from Forensic mixed samples. [23] DEP has made it possible to characterize and manipulate biological particles like blood cells, stem cells, neurons, pancreatic β cells, DNA, chromosomes, proteins and viruses. DEP can be used to separate particles with different sign polarizabilities as they move in different directions at a given frequency of the AC field applied. DEP has been applied for the separation of live and dead cells, with the remaining live cells still viable after separation [24] or to force contact between selected single cells to study cell-cell interaction. [25]
DEP is mainly used for characterising cells measuring the changes in their electrical properties. To do this, many techniques are available to quantify the dielectrophoretic response, as it is not possible to directly measure the DEP force. These techniques rely on indirect measures, obtaining a proportional response of the strength and direction of the force that needs to be scaled to the model spectrum. So most models only consider the Clausius-Mossotti factor of a particle. The most used techniques are collection rate measurements: this is the simplest and most used technique – electrodes are submerged in a suspension with a known concentration of particles and the particles that collect at the electrode are counted; [29] crossover measurements: the crossover frequency between positive and negative DEP is measured to characterise particles – this technique is used for smaller particles (e.g. viruses), that are difficult to count with the previous technique; [30] particle velocity measurements: this technique measures the velocity and direction of the particles in an electric field gradient; [31] measurement of the levitation height: the levitation height of a particle is proportional to the negative DEP force that is applied. Thus, this technique is good for characterising single particles and is mainly used for larger particles such as cells; [32] impedance sensing: particles collecting at the electrode edge have an influence on the impedance of the electrodes – this change can be monitored to quantify DEP. [33] In order to study larger populations of cells, the properties can be obtained by analysing the dielectrophoretic spectra. [14]
At the start, electrodes were made mainly from wires or metal sheets. Nowadays, the electric field in DEP is created by means of electrodes which minimize the magnitude of the voltage needed. This has been possible using fabrication techniques such as photolithography, laser ablation and electron beam patterning. [34] These small electrodes allow the handling of small bioparticles. The most used electrode geometries are isometric, polynomial, interdigitated, and crossbar. Isometric geometry is effective for particle manipulation with DEP but repelled particles do not collect in well defined areas and so separation into two homogeneous groups is difficult. Polynomial is a new geometry producing well defined differences in regions of high and low forces and so particles could be collected by positive and negative DEP. This electrode geometry showed that the electrical field was highest at the middle of the inter-electrode gaps. [35] Interdigitated geometry comprises alternating electrode fingers of opposing polarities and is mainly used for dielectrophoretic trapping and analysis. Crossbar geometry is potentially useful for networks of interconnects. [36]
These electrodes were developed [37] to offer a high-throughput yet low-cost alternative to conventional electrode structures for DEP. Rather than use photolithographic methods or other microengineering approaches, DEP-well electrodes are constructed from stacking successive conductive and insulating layers in a laminate, after which multiple "wells" are drilled through the structure. If one examines the walls of these wells, the layers appear as interdigitated electrodes running continuously around the walls of the tube. When alternating conducting layers are connected to the two phases of an AC signal, a field gradient formed along the walls moves cells by DEP. [38]
DEP-wells can be used in two modes; for analysis or separation. [39] In the first, the dielectrophoretic properties of cells can be monitored by light absorption measurements: positive DEP attracts the cells to the wall of the well, thus when probed with a light beam the well the light intensity increases through the well. The opposite is true for negative DEP, in which the light beam becomes obscured by the cells. Alternatively, the approach can be used to build a separator, where mixtures of cells are forced through large numbers (>100) of wells in parallel; those experiencing positive DEP are trapped in the device whilst the rest are flushed. Switching off the field allows release of the trapped cells into a separate container. The highly parallel nature of the approach means that the chip can sort cells at much higher speeds, comparable to those used by MACS and FACS.
This approach offers many advantages over conventional, photolithography-based devices but reducing cost, increasing the amount of sample which can be analysed simultaneously, and the simplicity of cell motion reduced to one dimension (where cells can only move radially towards or away from the centre of the well). Devices manufactured to use the DEP-well principle are marketed under the DEPtech brand.
The utilization of the difference between dielectrophoretic forces exerted on different particles in nonuniform electric fields is known as DEP separation. The exploitation of DEP forces has been classified into two groups: DEP migration and DEP retention. DEP migration uses DEP forces that exert opposite signs of force on different particle types to attract some of the particles and repel others. [40] DEP retention uses the balance between DEP and fluid-flow forces. Particles experiencing repulsive and weak attractive DEP forces are eluted by fluid flow, whereas particles experiencing strong attractive DEP forces are trapped at electrode edges against flow drag. [41]
Dielectrophoresis field-flow fractionation (DEP-FFF), introduced by Davis and Giddings, [42] is a family of chromatographic-like separation methods. In DEP-FFF, DEP forces are combined with drag flow to fractionate a sample of different types of particles. [41] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] Particles are injected into a carrier flow that passes through the separation chamber, with an external separating force (a DEP force) being applied perpendicular to the flow. By means of different factors, such as diffusion and steric, hydrodynamic, dielectric and other effects, or a combination thereof, particles (<1 μm in diameter) with different dielectric or diffusive properties attain different positions away from the chamber wall, which, in turn, exhibit different characteristic concentration profile. Particles that move further away from the wall reach higher positions in the parabolic velocity profile of the liquid flowing through the chamber and will be eluted from the chamber at a faster rate.
The use of photoconductive materials (for example, in lab-on-chip devices) allows for localized inducement of dielectrophoretic forces through the application of light. In addition, one can project an image to induce forces in a patterned illumination area, allowing for some complex manipulations. When manipulating living cells, optical dielectrophoresis provides a non-damaging alternative to optical tweezers, as the intensity of light is about 1000 times less. [48]
In electromagnetism, a dielectric is an electrical insulator that can be polarised by an applied electric field. When a dielectric material is placed in an electric field, electric charges do not flow through the material as they do in an electrical conductor, because they have no loosely bound, or free, electrons that may drift through the material, but instead they shift, only slightly, from their average equilibrium positions, causing dielectric polarisation. Because of dielectric polarisation, positive charges are displaced in the direction of the field and negative charges shift in the direction opposite to the field. This creates an internal electric field that reduces the overall field within the dielectric itself. If a dielectric is composed of weakly bonded molecules, those molecules not only become polarised, but also reorient so that their symmetry axes align to the field.
The relative permittivity is the permittivity of a material expressed as a ratio with the electric permittivity of a vacuum. A dielectric is an insulating material, and the dielectric constant of an insulator measures the ability of the insulator to store electric energy in an electrical field.
Capacitance is the capability of a material object or device to store electric charge. It is measured by the charge in response to a difference in electric potential, expressed as the ratio of those quantities. Commonly recognized are two closely related notions of capacitance: self capacitance and mutual capacitance. An object that can be electrically charged exhibits self capacitance, for which the electric potential is measured between the object and ground. Mutual capacitance is measured between two components, and is particularly important in the operation of the capacitor, an elementary linear electronic component designed to add capacitance to an electric circuit.
Space charge is an interpretation of a collection of electric charges in which excess electric charge is treated as a continuum of charge distributed over a region of space rather than distinct point-like charges. This model typically applies when charge carriers have been emitted from some region of a solid—the cloud of emitted carriers can form a space charge region if they are sufficiently spread out, or the charged atoms or molecules left behind in the solid can form a space charge region.
Digital microfluidics (DMF) is a platform for lab-on-a-chip systems that is based upon the manipulation of microdroplets. Droplets are dispensed, moved, stored, mixed, reacted, or analyzed on a platform with a set of insulated electrodes. Digital microfluidics can be used together with analytical analysis procedures such as mass spectrometry, colorimetry, electrochemical, and electrochemiluminescense.
In chemistry, electro-osmotic flow is the motion of liquid induced by an applied potential across a porous material, capillary tube, membrane, microchannel, or any other fluid conduit. Because electro-osmotic velocities are independent of conduit size, as long as the electrical double layer is much smaller than the characteristic length scale of the channel, electro-osmotic flow will have little effect. Electro-osmotic flow is most significant when in small channels, and is an essential component in chemical separation techniques, notably capillary electrophoresis. Electro-osmotic flow can occur in natural unfiltered water, as well as buffered solutions.
In chemistry, electrophoresis is the motion of charged dispersed particles or dissolved charged molecules relative to a fluid under the influence of a spatially uniform electric field. As a rule, these are zwitterions. Electrophoresis of positively charged particles or molecules (cations) is sometimes called cataphoresis, while electrophoresis of negatively charged particles or molecules (anions) is sometimes called anaphoresis.
Polarizability usually refers to the tendency of matter, when subjected to an electric field, to acquire an electric dipole moment in proportion to that applied field. It is a property of all matter, considering that matter is made up of elementary particles which have an electric charge, namely protons and electrons. When subject to an electric field, the negatively charged electrons and positively charged atomic nuclei are subject to opposite forces and undergo charge separation. Polarizability is responsible for a material's dielectric constant and, at high (optical) frequencies, its refractive index.
Electrohydrodynamics (EHD), also known as electro-fluid-dynamics (EFD) or electrokinetics, is the study of the dynamics of electrically charged fluids. It is the study of the motions of ionized particles or molecules and their interactions with electric fields and the surrounding fluid. The term may be considered to be synonymous with the rather elaborate electrostrictive hydrodynamics. ESHD covers the following types of particle and fluid transport mechanisms: electrophoresis, electrokinesis, dielectrophoresis, electro-osmosis, and electrorotation. In general, the phenomena relate to the direct conversion of electrical energy into kinetic energy, and vice versa.
Vacuum permittivity, commonly denoted ε0, is the value of the absolute dielectric permittivity of classical vacuum. It may also be referred to as the permittivity of free space, the electric constant, or the distributed capacitance of the vacuum. It is an ideal (baseline) physical constant. Its CODATA value is:
A capacitor is an electronic device that stores electrical energy in an electric field by accumulating electric charges on two closely spaced surfaces that are insulated from each other. It is a passive electronic component with two terminals.
In materials science, effective medium approximations (EMA) or effective medium theory (EMT) pertain to analytical or theoretical modeling that describes the macroscopic properties of composite materials. EMAs or EMTs are developed from averaging the multiple values of the constituents that directly make up the composite material. At the constituent level, the values of the materials vary and are inhomogeneous. Precise calculation of the many constituent values is nearly impossible. However, theories have been developed that can produce acceptable approximations which in turn describe useful parameters including the effective permittivity and permeability of the materials as a whole. In this sense, effective medium approximations are descriptions of a medium based on the properties and the relative fractions of its components and are derived from calculations, and effective medium theory. There are two widely used formulae.
Electromanipulation is a micro-material analyzing method mostly used for manipulations of biological cells that uses properties of diverse electric fields. In nanotechnology, nanomaterials are so small that they can hardly be directly mechanically manipulated. Hence, electric fields are applied to them to make field-induced movements or deformations. It is a recently developed technology and is still in progress of widening applications. Types of Electronmanipulation includes dielectrophoresis, electro-rotation, electro-deformation, electro-disruption, electro-destruction, electroporation, and electro-fusion. Diverse electromanipulations are achieved using various electric fields including AC(alternating current), DC(direct current), and pulsed(deliver high-energy discharges at very short periods) electrical fields. Electromanipulation of cells permits diverse cell manipulations with minimal mechanical contact between cells and device structures. Although predominantly used in cells, elctromanipulation also contributes to other scientific fields such as Hybridoma technology and nanoelectronic devices development.
Electroacoustic phenomena arise when ultrasound propagates through a fluid containing ions. The associated particle motion generates electric signals because ions have electric charge. This coupling between ultrasound and electric field is called electroacoustic phenomena. The fluid might be a simple Newtonian liquid, or complex heterogeneous dispersion, emulsion or even a porous body. There are several different electroacoustic effects depending on the nature of the fluid.
Sedimentation potential occurs when dispersed particles move under the influence of either gravity or centrifugation in a medium. This motion disrupts the equilibrium symmetry of the particle's double layer. While the particle moves, the ions in the electric double layer lag behind due to the liquid flow. This causes a slight displacement between the surface charge and the electric charge of the diffuse layer. As a result, the moving particle creates a dipole moment. The sum of all of the dipoles generates an electric field which is called sedimentation potential. It can be measured with an open electrical circuit, which is also called sedimentation current.
Electrofiltration is a method that combines membrane filtration and electrophoresis in a dead-end process.
Nanofluidic circuitry is a nanotechnology aiming for control of fluids in nanometer scale. Due to the effect of an electrical double layer within the fluid channel, the behavior of nanofluid is observed to be significantly different compared with its microfluidic counterparts. Its typical characteristic dimensions fall within the range of 1–100 nm. At least one dimension of the structure is in nanoscopic scale. Phenomena of fluids in nano-scale structure are discovered to be of different properties in electrochemistry and fluid dynamics.
The electric dipole moment is a measure of the separation of positive and negative electrical charges within a system, that is, a measure of the system's overall polarity. The SI unit for electric dipole moment is the coulomb-meter (C⋅m). The debye (D) is another unit of measurement used in atomic physics and chemistry.
Plasmonic nanoparticles are particles whose electron density can couple with electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths that are far larger than the particle due to the nature of the dielectric-metal interface between the medium and the particles: unlike in a pure metal where there is a maximum limit on what size wavelength can be effectively coupled based on the material size.
Electrical capacitance volume tomography (ECVT) is a non-invasive 3D imaging technology applied primarily to multiphase flows. It was first introduced by W. Warsito, Q. Marashdeh, and L.-S. Fan as an extension of the conventional electrical capacitance tomography (ECT). In conventional ECT, sensor plates are distributed around a surface of interest. Measured capacitance between plate combinations is used to reconstruct 2D images (tomograms) of material distribution. In ECT, the fringing field from the edges of the plates is viewed as a source of distortion to the final reconstructed image and is thus mitigated by guard electrodes. ECVT exploits this fringing field and expands it through 3D sensor designs that deliberately establish an electric field variation in all three dimensions. The image reconstruction algorithms are similar in nature to ECT; nevertheless, the reconstruction problem in ECVT is more complicated. The sensitivity matrix of an ECVT sensor is more ill-conditioned and the overall reconstruction problem is more ill-posed compared to ECT. The ECVT approach to sensor design allows direct 3D imaging of the outrounded geometry. This is different than 3D-ECT that relies on stacking images from individual ECT sensors. 3D-ECT can also be accomplished by stacking frames from a sequence of time intervals of ECT measurements. Because the ECT sensor plates are required to have lengths on the order of the domain cross-section, 3D-ECT does not provide the required resolution in the axial dimension. ECVT solves this problem by going directly to the image reconstruction and avoiding the stacking approach. This is accomplished by using a sensor that is inherently three-dimensional.