Method of continuously separating mixtures of microscopic dielec

Details Method of continuously separating mixtures of microscopic dielec Method of continuously separating mixtures of microscopic dielec

1994-02-18

1995-10-03

Kashnikow, Andres

Classifying, separating, and assorting solids

Electrostatic

209128, 209212, B03C 130

Patent

active

054544726

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
DESCRIPTION

1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a method of continuously separating mixtures of microscopic dielectric particles, wherein the mixture of particles is suspended in a liquid or a gel, as well as to an apparatus for carrying through this method.
2. Prior Art
A separating method of this type is intended for isolating mixtures of microscopic particles such as biological cells, cell organelles, bio molecules as well as inorganic dielectric particles, and for preparing them for analyses or technological applications.
The isolation of certain species of particles from mixtures of particles is required, for instance, in medicine, in food engineering, biology, chemistry and for pharmaceutical purposes. Specifically when major quantities of a mixture are to be separated it is desirable to apply a continuously operating separating method.
Various electrokinetic methods have become known for separating mixtures of particles. Separating methods such as gel electrophoresis, iso-tachophoresis and iso-electric focussing are employed to separate mixtures of particles into their constituents by the latter's different mobilities. One decisive requirement for such a separation consists in the aspect that appropriate provisions reduce the convections, which occur in any case, down to a non-critical value since convection takes an influence on the mobility of the particles.
The reduction of convection is achieved either by cooling or by the application of convection-inhibiting carriers. There are defined limits if comparatively large-size particles such as biologic cells are to be separated or if the system is to be operated continuously. For this reason a continuous operation can be achieved only by expensive cooling provisions or by complex stabilizing techniques, e.g. with utilization of centrifugal forces.
The costs incurred thereby and the technological problems involved have resulted so far only in a restricted scope of application of continuously operating electrophoretic methods.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is based on the object of providing a method of separating mixtures of microscopic suspended particles, which operates continously, presents a high grade of separation, and which can be realized at low cost, as well as on the problem of providing an apparatus for carrying through the method.
This problem is solved, in accordance with the present invention, by a method That is, there is provided a method and apparatus for continuously separating mixtures of microscopic dielectric particles suspended in a liquid or a gel by one of (a) continuously forcing the particles to move on guide paths by applying high-frequency alternating fields as a guiding field, which present maxima and minima at microscopic spacings, and feeding certain particle species out from the guide path by applying at least one additional field of forces acting upon the particles and having a component orthogonal to the guide path and with compensation of the forces in forcing the motion of the certain particle species on the guide paths, and (b) forcing the particles onto guide paths by causing a suspension medium to flow in a presettable direction, and feeding certain particles species out from the flow by applying at least one dielectrophoretic high-frequency field acting upon the particles, with compensation force acting upon the particles as a result of the flow.
According to a feature of the present invention, the additional field of forces has a form of one of an electric field, a magnetic field, an optical field, a gravitational field, a field of flow, and a corpuscular flux.
The suspended particles are forced to move along a guide orbit or path, in one case by fields of dielectrophoretic force, and in the other case by the flow of the suspension medium.
An additional force compensates the forces which enforce a particle movement onto the guide paths for certain species of particles so that these particles are fed out from the guide paths and hence separated from the mixture.
In the

REFERENCES:
patent: 4172028 (1979-10-01), Dunn
patent: 4517078 (1985-05-01), Inculet et al.
patent: 4627579 (1986-12-01), Rich
patent: 4680106 (1987-07-01), Weiss et al.
patent: 4816143 (1989-03-01), Vollmar
patent: 5224604 (1994-07-01), Duczmal et al.

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