Seed particle-enabled acoustic trapping of bacteria and nanoparticles in continuous flow systems

Acoustic trapping of sub-micron particles can allow enrichment and purification of small-sized and low-abundance microorganisms. In this paper, we investigate the dependency of the ability to capture sub-micron particles on the particle concentration. Based on the findings, it is demonstrated that seed particles can be introduced to acoustic trapping, to enable capture of low-abundance sub-micron particles. Without using seed particles, continuous enrichment of 490 nm polystyrene particles is demonstrated in a rectangular capillary with a locally generated acoustic field at high particle concentrations, i.e. above 1% wt. Trapping of sub-micron particles at significantly lower concentrations was subsequently accomplished by seeding 10–12 micrometer-sized particles in the acoustic trap prior to the sub-micron particle capture. Furthermore, the new seeded-particle-aided acoustic trapping technique was employed for the continuous enrichment of bacteria (E. coli) with a capture efficiency of 95%. Finally, seed particle assisted acoustic trapping and enrichment is demonstrated for polymer-based particles down to 110 nm in diameter.