Water is a basic necessity critical to the survival of all living beings. However, many people around the world do not have consistent access to uncontaminated drinking water. Traditional water treatment methods, such as filtration and disinfection, require physical or chemical disinfectants and are prone to fouling. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) enables a system whereby polarized bioparticles exhibit lateral movement under the influence of applied, non-uniform electric fields. A single-stage, continuous flow, millimeter-sized DEP device was designed and fabricated to remove Escherichia coli K12 from contaminated tap water. Glass beads were used to alter the electric field distribution and create zones of high electric field to trap bacterial cells. The effect of varied voltages, flow rates and bead sizes on the removal efficiency was studied. The highest removal efficiency of E. coli K12 was 99.9%, with the device set at 60 V, a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min and a 200 µm bead size. Higher applied voltages, slower flow rates, and smaller bead sizes led to an increased reduction in bacteria. An optimized macro-scale system—with multiple stages of DEP—could be suitable for commercial use and would be an effective method of removing pathogens from polluted tap water.

中文翻译：

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基于微流体绝缘体的介电泳 (DEP) 保留装置的设计和评估，用于从自来水中分离细菌

水是对所有生物的生存至关重要的基本必需品。然而，世界各地的许多人无法持续获得未受污染的饮用水。传统的水处理方法，如过滤和消毒，需要物理或化学消毒剂，并且容易结垢。介电电泳 (DEP) 使极化的生物颗粒在施加的非均匀电场的影响下表现出横向运动的系统成为可能。设计并制造了一种单级、连续流动、毫米级的 DEP 装置来去除大肠杆菌来自受污染自来水的 K12。玻璃珠用于改变电场分布并创建高电场区以捕获细菌细胞。研究了不同电压、流速和珠粒尺寸对去除效率的影响。大肠杆菌K12的最高去除效率为 99.9%，设备设置为 60 V，流速为 1.0 mL/min，珠尺寸为 200 µm。更高的施加电压、更慢的流速和更小的珠子尺寸导致细菌减少的增加。具有多个 DEP 阶段的优化宏观系统可能适用于商业用途，并且是从受污染的自来水中去除病原体的有效方法。