(45e) Designing Synthetic Cilia to Regulate Fluid Flow and Particle Transport in Microfluidic Devices

We model the transport of a neutrally buoyant, microscopic particle via a regular array of beating elastic filaments, which are anchored to a substrate. These synthetic cilia are actuated by an external periodic force and thus, undergo a cyclic motion. The tips of the beating cilia experience an attractive interaction with the particle's surface and thus, can transfer momentum to the suspended particle. We find that the concerted motion of the cilia causes the particle to be effectively passed from one cilium to the next, and thereby transported along the top of the layer. We isolate the parameter space that provides the most effective particle transport. These are the first simulations to show that the motility of artificial cilia can lead to the net directed motion of microscopic particulates, and thus, indicate that such filaments could be used to control the trafficking of particles in microfluidic devices.