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

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。该布里奇奖的研究目标是研究涉及许多(数百)纳米级实体的介电(DEP)导向的流体组装中的胶体电流体动力学。利用荧光显微镜和数字粒子图像测速仪对DEP驱动的纳米粒子的运动和流场进行了实验研究。组装的纳米和微结构的最终图案将用扫描电子显微镜进行测量。利用基于分布式拉格朗日乘子的虚拟区域方法建立了一个先进的数值模型，用于研究众多纳米级实体的集体电流体动力学行为。通过与实验数据的比较，验证了模型预测的正确性。这项工作将在纳米和微米尺度上阐明固-液两相流中机电和流体力学之间的耦合。所发展的实验和数值方法也将有助于胶体系统中颗粒流动的一般研究。如果成功，这项研究的结果将促进对纳米胶体中电流体动力学输运的理解。这样的理解对于开发用于纳米和微电子应用的大规模并行制造纳米结构的有效和强大的流体组装技术至关重要。桥项目的技术方面将与其教育和外联计划相结合，这些计划旨在通过积极招聘和让研究生/本科生/高中生参与科学研究和培训，增加来自不同种族/民族群体、有兴趣从事工程学职业的人数不足的学生的数量。

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.