A Microfluidic System for Continuous Magnetophoretic Separation of Suspended Cells Using Their Native Magnetic Properties

This paper presents the characterization of a continuous magnetophoretic microseparator for separating white and red blood cells from whole blood by using a high gradient magnetic separation method and microfabrication technology. The magnetophoretic microseparator directly separates blood cells based on their native magnetic properties without the use of additives such as magnetic tagging or inducing materials. Experimental results show that the diamagnetic capture mode microseparator can continuously separate out 89.7 % of red blood cells and 72.7 % of white blood cells, and the three-stage cascade paramagnetic capture mode microseparator can continuously separate out 93.5 % of red blood cells and 97.4 % of white blood cells from whole blood by applying an external magnetic flux of 0.2 T using a permanent magnet.