Improved Understanding of Acoustophoresis and Development of an Acoustofluidic Device for Blood Plasma Separation

Separating blood plasma in microchannels is of great relevance to microfluidics-based biodetection. However, the physics behind the separation of plasma from whole blood using acoustophoresis (movement driven by sound waves) is not well understood. This study uses experiments and simulations to provide an improved understanding of plasma separation from whole blood using acoustophoresis. It is seen that acoustophoretic focusing of cells depend on two time scales: that of shear-induced diffusion, and that of actual acoustophoresis. These results will help in designing highly efficient blood-plasma separation devices for lab-on-a-chip applications.