BRIGE: Study of Colloidal Electrohydrodynamics for Dielectrophoresis-Directed Fluidic Assembly of Nanostructures

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The research objective of this BRIGE award is to study the colloidal electrohydrodynamics in dielectrophoresis (DEP)-directed fluidic assembly involving many (hundreds of) nanoscale entities. The nanoentity motion and the flow field driven by DEP will be experimentally investigated using fluorescent microscopy and digital particle image velocimetry. The final patterns of the assembled nano- and microstructures will be measured with scanning electron microscopy. An advanced numerical model will be developed using the distributed Lagrange-multiplier based fictitious-domain method to explore the collective electrohydrodynamic behavior of numerous nanoscale entities. The model prediction will be validated through comparison to the experimental data. This work will elucidate the coupling between electromechanics and fluid mechanics in solid-liquid two-phase flow at the nano- and microscale. The experimental and numerical methods developed will also benefit the general study of particulate flow in colloidal systems. If successful, the results of this research will advance the understanding of the electrohydrodynamic transport in nanoscale colloids. Such understanding is crucial to the development of effective and robust fluidic assembly techniques for large-scale parallel manufacturing of nanostructures for nano- and microelectronic applications. The technical aspects of the BRIGE project will be integrated with its education and outreach programs that aim at increasing the number of underrepresented students from diverse racial/ethnic groups who are interested in pursuing careers in engineering through active recruitment and involvement of graduate/undergraduate/high school students in scientific research and training.