Exploiting magnetic asymmetry to concentrate diamagnetic particles in ferrofluid microflows

Abstract

Concentrating particles and cells for measurement or removal is often essential in many chemical and biological applications. Diamagnetic particle concentration has been demonstrated in magnetic fluids using two repulsive or attracting magnets, which in almost all cases are symmetrically positioned on the two sides of the particle-flowing channel. This work studies the effects of magnet asymmetry on the pattern and flow rate of diamagnetic particle concentration in ferrofluid flow through a straight rectangular microchannel. Two attracting permanent magnets with a fixed distance are each embedded on one side of the microchannel with a symmetric or an asymmetric configuration. A pair of symmetric counter-rotating circulations of concentrated particles is formed in the microchannel with a symmetric magnet configuration, which is found to grow in size and progress up the flow. In contrast, the single asymmetric circulation of concentrated particles formed in the microchannel with an asymmetric magnet configuration nearly maintains its size and position. Moreover, the magnet asymmetry is found to increase the ferrofluid flow rate for particle trapping, which is predicted by a three-dimensional theoretical model with a reasonable agreement.