Comparison of spherical and non-spherical particles in microchannels under dielectrophoretic force

This paper focuses on the computational and experimental study of dielectrophoretic (DEP) force based manipulation of spherical and non-spherical particles by taking into consideration of both electrokinetic effects and particle hydrodynamics. The model is first validated with conventional dipole moment theory. The movements of a spherical polystyrene particle and a rod-shape particle under a non-uniform electric field created by a pair of non-symmetrical electrodes in a microfluidic channel are studied, and a good agreement between the simulation and experimental results is obtained. Both experimental and simulation results reveal that the rod-shape particle experiences larger DEP force and moves faster than spherical particle with a similar mass. It was also interestingly found that the shape-dependent DEP force distribution on the microscale rod particle results in its unique behavior, which cannot be captured by traditional DEP theory.