Analysis of Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Impacts on Acoustic Separation of CTCs

Metastasis is the main origin of epithelial cancer-based mortality. since circulating tumor cells (ctcs) are valid biomarkers to diagnose cancer, their isolation and analysis are crucial. microfluidic technology has experienced remarkable potential to isolate ctcs due to its unique characteristics. the present paper analyzes the influences of newtonian and non-newtonian fluids on the continuous separation of ctcs using standing surface acoustic waves (ssaws). the impacts of inlet velocity, oscillation amplitude, dynamic viscosity, ctc radius, power-law index, and sheath-to-sample flow velocity ratio on the isolation process are examined. the results demonstrate that the separation efficiency declines from 88% to 84% by augmenting the inlet velocity from 1.8 mm/s to 2 mm/s. it is found that for a certain value of ctc radius, the amount of sheath flow velocity can be changed to reach a maximum separation efficiency. besides, the amount of separation efficiency decreases as the dynamic viscosity of the newtonian fluid is enhanced and the power-law index of the non-newtonian fluid is reduced.