Characterization and Modeling of Novel Dielectrophoretic Electropolymerization Micromanufacturing Process

三维微电极在电子学、功率转换和存储、各种芯片实验室（Lab-on-a-chip，简称MEMS）应用以及各种传感器中具有广泛的当前和新兴应用。目前还没有可以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待创建的微特征，这是一个耗时长的过程，会影响生产率和成本。本项目提出了一个综合的研究计划，研究，表征和模拟新开发的介电泳电聚合（DEP EP）过程的可扩展的制造技术。该方法结合了介电泳（DEP）和顺序电聚合。DEP选择性地将悬浮在溶液中的微米和纳米颗粒吸引到微电极;顺序电聚合将颗粒捕获在电极表面上。所得到的聚吡咯（PPy）层是导电的，从而使得能够大规模生产用于生物技术、生命科学、能源生产和储存、有机电子和化学工程领域中的科学和工程应用的廉价微电极。预计该过程也可用于创建新的光子器件和上级全细胞生物传感器平台，用于水质研究和药物发现。该项目将涉及来自加州大学欧文分校的研究生和本科生以及来自马鞍峰学院和山社区学院的学生。圣安东尼学院。外联活动包括密切指导来自洛杉矶联合学区的公立学校的一所中学和一所高中的科学教师，这些学校的少数族裔学生人数主要不足。计划每月让PI和研究生访问这些学校，并让学校访问PI的大学实验室。在研究过程中获得的结果和见解将被纳入PI教授的本科生和研究生课程，并在文章，会议和小组的帖子中传播。该研究将导致介电泳电聚合（DEP EP）过程的经验证的模型，允许对用微颗粒或对准的纳米管图案化的三维电极的可缩放的大规模生产的过程控制。 该项目的目标是：1）表征和建模介电泳电聚合微制造过程，用于将微米和纳米颗粒吸引和附着到电极上，以包括电渗力，介电泳力和动态聚合过程之间的相互作用; 2）开发经验证的模型，用于创建三种特定类型的图案化微电极：（a）位于电极上特定位置的微米和纳米颗粒（例如，均匀分布的颗粒）;（B）分层（分形）微电极的产生;以及（c）跨微电极的对准和用于纳米纤维和纳米管的熔合碳欧姆接触的产生。

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.