The automatic and high‐throughput purification and enrichment of microalgae cells using deterministic lateral displacement arrays with different post shapes

BACKGROUND Microalgae is an important natural resource, which has been used in various fields such as health care, chemical industry, clean energy, and environmental protection. However, microalgae samples are prone to be contaminated by bacteria, impurities, or other hybrid microalgae species. Enrichment and purification must be carried out before further research and utilization.RESULT Herein, a microfluidic microalgae enrichment and purification system based on the principle of deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) was proposed. Two different shapes of micro-post, circular and triangular, were designed. The performance of the two chips was analyzed from many aspects, such as stability, throughput, recovery efficiency, purity, and enrichment factor. Using Platymonas cells as the samples, enrichment and purification were performed with the two chips. Experimental investigations revealed that the triangular-shaped chip has a better performance than circular-shaped chip; the recovery efficiency of Platymonas cells of the triangular-shaped chip was 85.7%, the purity was 89.4%, and the maximum throughput was 500 mu L/min, the enrichment factor was 92.CONCLUSION To our knowledge, this is the first time that DLD technology has been applied to the enrichment and purification of microalgae cells. In addition, the performance of different chips was discussed. Those findings should make a driving contribution to the enrichment and purification of microalgae, DLD technology, and the utilization of microalgae resources. (c) 2021 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).