A multi-functionally optoelectric platform for micro/nano particle manipulation and applications

This paper presents a simple optoelectrokinetic method for manipulating particles by simultaneously inducing electrohydrodnamic flow and electrokinetic motion. With carefully tuning the balance between several forces acting on particles, multiple manipulation capabilities including aggregation, translation, sorting, and patterning were achieved. In combination with bead-based immunoassays, we successfully performed fluorescent signal enhancement for a dilute analyte (∼10 pg/mL), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and achieved a proof of concept for simultaneous detection of dual biomarkers. The development of such a technique can provide insight to diagnosing diseases in the early stage.