Bottom-up assembly of nano-carbon devices by dielectrophoresis

Abstract

In this review, I trace the development of dielectrophoresis (DEP) for the directed assembly of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene. DEP involves driving a nanoparticle in an alternating current (AC) electric field, whereby the particles migrate towards or away from the direction of high-field gradient depending on the relative polarizability of the particle and medium. DEP offers a scalable and controllable route for integration of various kinds of nano-carbon devices, such as field-effect transistors, nano-electromechanical resonators and sensors. DEP utilizes nano-carbons in solution phase and is compatible with the various CNT and graphene sorting methods which have been developed, allowing for instance the large-scale integration of single-chirality CNTs.False-colour scanning electron micrograph of an array of semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotube devices assembled by alternating-current dielectrophoresis.

Aligned Immobilization of Proteins Using AC Electric Fields

“…Both conducting and semiconducting nanowires were tested for electronic nanodevices . Alignment and deposition of carbon nanotubes were demonstrated by Krupke et al Their use and that of graphene for the bottom‐up preparation of nanoelectronic devices was reviewed recently by Vijyaraghavan . Nanowires and nanotubes can be modeled as elongated cylinders with a high aspect ratio.…”

Bottom-up device fabrication via the seeded growth of polymer-based nanowires

“…carbon nanotubes, are directed towards the inter-electrode region to complete an electrical circuit. Simple circuits have thus been assembled using a variety of approaches for component organisation such as ow, [3][4][5] electrophoresis, 6 dipping, 7 hydrogen bonding/molecular recognition (DNA), 2 chemisorption in a nanogap, 8 and dip-pen lithography. 9 An alternative, much less explored, approach is to extend the self-assembly stages to the components themselves and for these to be grown in situ.…”

Frequency dependence of dielectrophoretic fabrication of single-walled carbon nanotube field-effect transistors

“…A different study on the directed assembly of CNTs and graphene in an alternating current (AC) electric field can be found in Ref. [15]. The authors of Ref.…”