A nanowire-integrated microfluidic device for hydrodynamic trapping and anchoring of bacterial cells

In this work, we proposed a novel method for facile hydrodynamic trapping and anchoring of bacterial cells using nanowire array with fishnet-like structure in microfluidic channel. Vertically well-aligned ZnO nanowires were directly synthesized onto side walls of microslit structures by hydrothermal method to form mesh-like cage structures. We found that the mesh-like cages were effective in trapping and anchoring of Escherichia coli cells as model bacteria. In addition, we observed two anchoring modes; impaling and wedging, by electron microscopy and they resulted in irreversible and reversible damage to the anchored cells, respectively. We expected that the suggested bacterial cell trapping method can be used as a simple cell-manipulating platform for advanced microfluidic system.