Designing a microfluidic chip driven by laser beam for separation of particulate matter

A T-type microfluidic chip for particulate matter sorting and collection is theoretically established based on optical methods, and an analytical solution for the offset distance of particles is also derived. On this basis, a dimensionless parameter S is proposed in combination with the characteristic parameters of the microfluidic chip. The trajectories of the particles under different conditions are calculated by means of numerical simulations, and the numerical simulations are compared with the theoretical calculations to verify the validity of the calculations and models. At the same time, an experimental platform was constructed, and the final experimental results show that the errors of the particle offset distances are 4.2 μm and 1.4 μm compared with the results of theoretical calculations and numerical simulations, respectively. Meanwhile, the particle sorting efficiency was counted according to the experimental results, and the experimental results and the numerical simulations are sufficient to attain satisfactory agreements.