NIRT: Magnetically Driven Assembly of Heterogeneous Nanosystems

这项NIRT提案关注的是一种从不同类型的纳米设备中构建多组分纳米系统的新方法。在这种方法中，胶体磁性颗粒将被用作载体，可以将不同的纳米设备运送到系统中的不同位置。使用微小磁铁产生的磁场将被用来指导胶体磁性颗粒的组装过程。这种新方法将被称为MAGDA，是磁驱动组装的缩写。智能优点：虽然磁力可能比表面力和化学结合更弱，但它们足够强大，在异质纳米系统的组装过程中确实提供了几个重要的优势。1)磁力的作用范围比化学和表面力要大得多。2)与静电场不同，胶体颗粒的磁场不会被溶液中的离子屏蔽，并且在很大程度上与所使用的流体无关。3)磁场不会干扰生物分子、无机分子和/或活细胞的生物、化学或电子功能。4)用于控制组装过程的铁磁材料的非线性可以被利用来获得排斥力和吸引力，而磁记忆可以用于非易失性操作。这将在拟议的研究中至关重要。拟议的研究将处理与将临界尺寸缩小到100 nm及以下的基本问题，开发为MAGDA工艺构建各种工具所需的制造方法，开发计算高效的组装过程数值模型，并演示MAGDA在生物传感器制造中的应用。广泛影响：拟议的工作将产生重大的教育影响。它将让本科生参与开发关于自我组装主题的教育网站。研究人员将开发与自组装相关的课程，这些课程可以作为一般纳米技术教育工作的一部分，也可以作为德雷克塞尔大学/宾夕法尼亚大学关于纳米技术的IGERT联合计划的一部分。参与研究的研究人员还将就与本研究主题密切相关的主题组织研讨会和讲习班。研究结果将被用来进行令人兴奋的演讲，以吸引高中生和代表性不足的少数群体进入一般高等教育，特别是纳米技术领域。

This NIRT proposal focuses on a new method for building multi-component nano-systems out of diverse types of nano-devices. In this method colloidal magnetic particles will be used as carriers that can deliver different nano-devices to different locations within the system. Magnetic fields generated using tiny magnets will be employed to direct the process of assembly of the colloidal magnetic particles. The new method will be called MAGDA as an abbreviation for MAGnetically Driven Assembly.Intellectual Merit:While magnetic forces can be weaker than surface forces and chemical binding, they are sufficiently strong and do offer several important advantages in the process of assembly of heterogeneous nano-systems.1) Magnetic forces have a much longer range of action than chemical and surface forces. 2) Unlike electrostatic fields, magnetic fields of colloidal particles are not screened by ions in solutions and are largely independent of the fluid being employed. 3) Magnetic fields do not interfere with the biological, chemical or electronic functions of biomolecules, inorganic molecules and/or live cells.4) Nonlinearity of ferromagnetic materials used to control the assembly process can be exploited to obtain repulsive as well as attractive forces, while magnetic memory can be used for nonvolatile operation. This will be critical in the proposed research.The proposed research will deal with fundamental issues related to scaling of critical dimensions down to 100 nm and below, developing fabrication methods needed to construct various tools for MAGDA processes, developing computationally efficient numerical models of the assembly process and demonstrating applications of MAGDA to fabrication of bio-sensors.Broader Impact:The proposed work will have a significant educational impact. It will involve undergraduate students in developing educational web site on the subject of self-assembly. The investigators will develop courses related to self-assembly that can be used as a part of general nanotechnology education effort and as a part of Drexel University/University of Pennsylvania joint IGERT program on nanotechnology. The researchers involved will also organize seminars and workshops on topics that are closely related to the subject of this research. The results of the research will be employed to make exciting presentations to attract high-school students and under-represented minorities into higher education in general and into nanotechnology area in particular.