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Design and Fabrication of a High Performance Microfluidic Chip for Blood Plasma Separation: Modelling and Prediction of System Behaviour Via Cfd Method Publisher



Amini H1 ; Sokhansanj A2 ; Akrami M3 ; Haririan I3, 4
Authors
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Authors Affiliations
  1. 1. Chemical Engineering Faculty, Sahand University of Technology, P.O. Box 51335-1996, Sahand New Town, Tabriz, Iran
  2. 2. Reactor and Catalysis Research Center (RCRC), Sahand University of Technology, P.O. Box 51335-1996, Sahand New Town, Tabriz, Iran
  3. 3. Department of Pharmaceutical Biomaterials, Medicinal Biomaterials Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  4. 4. Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Source: International Journal of Analytical Chemistry Published:2023


Abstract

This paper presents a single-step microfluidic system designed for passive separation of human fresh blood plasma using direct capillary forces. Our microfluidic system is composed of a cylindrical well between upper and lower channel pairs produced by soft photolithography. The microchip was fabricated based on hydrophobicity differences upon suitable cylindrical surfaces using gravitational and capillary forces and lateral migration of plasma and red blood cells. The plasma radiation was applied to attach the polymeric segment (polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)) to the glass. Meanwhile, Tween 80 was used as a surfactant to increase the hydrophobicity of the lateral channel surfaces. This led to the higher movement of whole blood, including plasma. Fick's law of diffusion was validated for this diffusion transfer, the Navier-Stokes equation was used for the momentum balance, and the Laplace equation was utilized for the dynamics of the mesh. A model with high accuracy using the COMSOL Multiphysics software was created to predict the capillary forces and chip model validation. RBCs (red blood cells) were measured by the H3 cell counter instrument, by which 99% plasma purity was achieved. Practically, 58.3% of the plasma was separated from the blood within 12 min. Correlation between plasma separation results obtained from software and experimental data showed a coefficient of determination equal to 0.9732. This simple, rapid, stable, and reliable microchip can be considered as a promising candidate for providing plasma in point-of-care diagnostics. © 2023 Hossein Amini et al.