A cascade mode magnetophoretic microseparator for high efficiency blood cell separations

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of a high efficiency blood cell separator based on a cascade design of the continuous paramagnetic capture mode magnetophoretic microseparator. The PMC cascade microseparator directly separates blood cells from whole blood based on their native magnetic properties using a high gradient magnetic field without the use of additives such as magnetic tagging or fluorescent dyes. Experimental results show that 93.5 % of red blood cells and 97.4 % of white blood cells, from whole blood, was separated within 5 minutes by using a conventional permanent magnet to create an external magnetic flux of 0.2 T.