Microfluidic pipette tip for high-purity and high-throughput blood plasma separation from whole blood

Abstract

Blood plasma separation from whole blood is often limited by numerous blood cells which can compromise separation processes and thus deteriorate separation performance such as purity and throughput. To address this challenge, we present a microfluidic pipet tip composed of slant array ridges that enable autonomous blood cell focusing without significant deviation as well as facilitating a high degree of parallelization without compromising separation purity. With these advantages, we achieved high-purity (99.88%) and high-throughput (904.3 μL min–1) plasma separation from whole blood. In combination with a smart pipet, we successfully demonstrated rapid, inexpensive, and equipment-free blood plasma preparation for pretransfusion testing.