Inertia induced breakdown of acoustic sorting efficiency at high flow rates

We investigated the impact of inertial forces on acoustic sorting at high sample throughputs. Above a critical flow rate, we observed an unexpected inertia induced breakdown of the sorting efficiency that is not due to the wall induced lift force and was not previously described in the literature. We analyzed the effect experimentally and theoretically, providing an explanation to the phenomena, and suggest conditions to maximize the sample throughput, while keeping the sorting efficiency intact. The observed phenomena is generic to all separation techniques that rely on field based (electrical, magnetic, acoustic) forces acting on cells/particles.