Design of a surface acoustic wave-driven microfluidic chip for aerosol particle sorting

Aerosols can undergo long-range transport in the atmosphere and participate in complex chemical reactions, exerting significant impacts on global climate change, environmental pollution, and human health. Therefore, precise aerosol monitoring plays a vital role in air quality assessment, climate research, and the prevention of respiratory diseases. In recent years, microfluidic separation technology based on surface acoustic waves (SAWs) has attracted considerable attention in the field of micron-scale particle sorting due to its high precision, high throughput, and non-contact manipulation capabilities. In this study, a SAW-driven microfluidic particle separation system was developed. The system utilizes a piezoelectric actuator to generate surface acoustic waves, forming a controllable acoustic field within the chip to achieve efficient particle manipulation. A mathematical model describing particle motion in microchannels was established, and finite element simulations were performed to analyze their trajectories. Experimental results demonstrate that the system can effectively separate particles with diameters of 2 μm and 15 μm, confirming the feasibility of this approach for aerosol particle sorting applications.