Characterization and Modeling of Novel Dielectrophoretic Electropolymerization Micromanufacturing Process

三维微电极在电子、功率转换和存储、各种芯片上实验室（LOC）应用和各种传感器中具有广泛的当前和新兴应用。目前还没有能够大规模生产三维微电极的制造技术。在这些过程中，切割工具、准直光源或热源需要扫描所有要创建的微特征，这是一个漫长而耗时的过程，会影响生产率和成本。该项目提出了一个综合研究计划，以研究，表征和模拟新开发的可扩展制造技术的介电聚合（DEP EP）工艺。该工艺结合了介电电泳（DEP）和顺序电聚合。DEP选择性地将悬浮在溶液中的微粒子和纳米粒子吸引到微电极上；顺序电聚合捕获电极表面的粒子。所得到的聚吡咯（PPy）层是导电的，因此可以大规模生产廉价的微电极，用于生物技术、生命科学、能源生产和储存、有机电子学和化学工程等领域的科学和工程应用。该过程还可用于创建新的光子器件和优越的全细胞生物传感器平台，用于水质研究和药物发现。该项目将涉及加州大学欧文分校的研究生和本科生，以及马鞍峰学院和圣安东尼奥山学院的社区学院学生。外展活动包括对一所公立学校的一所初中和一所高中科学教师进行密切指导，这些学校主要是来自洛杉矶联合学区的少数族裔学生。PI和研究生每月访问这些学校，以及学校访问PI的大学实验室的计划。在研究过程中获得的结果和见解将被纳入PI教授的本科和研究生课程，并在小组的文章、会议和帖子中传播。年代的网站。这项研究将产生一个有效的介电泳电聚合（DEP EP）过程模型，允许大规模生产微颗粒或排列纳米管三维电极的过程控制。该项目的目标是：1)表征和模拟微粒子和纳米粒子在电极上的吸引和附着的介电泳电聚合微制造过程，包括电渗透力、介电泳力和动态聚合过程之间的相互作用；2)开发用于创建三种特定类型的图案微电极的验证模型：(a)位于电极上特定位置的微和纳米颗粒（例如，均匀分布的颗粒）；(b)创建分层（分形）微电极；(c)在微电极上对齐，并为纳米纤维和纳米管创建熔合碳欧姆触点。

Three-dimensional micro-electrodes have a wide range of current and emerging applications in electronics, power conversion and storage, in various lab-on-a-chip (LOC) applications, and in various sensors. Presently there is no fabrication technique that can offer scalable mass production of three dimensional micro-electrodes. In these processes, a cutting tool, a collimated light source or a heat source needs to scan over all the micro-features to be created, a long and time consuming process that compromises production rates and cost. This project presents an integrated research plan to study, characterize, and model the newly developed Dielectrophoretic Electropolymerization (DEP EP) process for scalable manufacturing technology. The process combines dielectrophoresis (DEP) and sequential electropolymerization. DEP selectively attracts micro- and nano-particles suspended in solution to microelectrodes; sequential electropolymerization captures particles on the surface of the electrodes. The resulting polypyrrole (PPy) layer is conductive, thus enabling the mass production of inexpensive microelectrodes for scientific and engineering applications in the areas of biotechnology, life sciences, energy production and storage, organic electronics, and chemical engineering. It is expected that the process can also be used to create new photonic devices and superior whole cell biosensor platforms for study of water quality and drug discovery. This project will involve graduate and undergraduate students from the University of California, Irvine as well as community college students from Saddleback College and Mt. St. Antonio College. The outreach activities include close mentoring of one middle school and one high school science teachers from public schools with predominantly underrepresented minority student populations from the Los Angeles Unified School District. Monthly visits of the PI and graduate students to these schools, as well as school visits to the PI's university lab are planned. The results and insights gained during the research will be incorporated into undergraduate and graduate courses taught by the PI as well as disseminated in articles, conferences, and postings on the group?s website.This study will result in a validated model of the Dielectrophoretic Electropolymerization (DEP EP) process, allowing process control of scalable mass-production of three-dimensional electrodes patterned with micro-particles or aligned nano-tubes. The objectives of the project are: 1) to characterize and model the dielectrophoretic electropolymerization micromanufacturing process for attraction and attachment of micro- and nano-particles to electrodes to include interplay between electroosmotic forces, dielectrophoretic forces, and dynamic polymerization process; 2) to develop validated models for creation of three specific types of patterned microelectrodes: (a) micro- and nano-particles positioned at specific locations on electrodes (for example, evenly distributed particles); (b) creation of hierarchical (fractal) microelectrodes; and (c) alignment across microelectrodes and creation of fuzed carbon Ohmic contacts for nano-fibers and nano-tubes.