Combining Fluidic Alignment with Dielectrophoresis to Assemble Carbon Nanotubes

Fluidic alignment and dielectrophoresis(DEP) are both methods of assembling carbon nanotubes(CNTs).Fluidic alignment can facilitate directional alignment of CNTs on a larger area of the substrate and curly CNTs can be straightened to a certain extent by the fluidic shear stress,yet it is difficult to assemble CNTs in appointed positions with fluidic alignment.With the uneven electric field on electrodes,DEP can assemble CNTs in appointed positions along the direction of electric field between electrodes but cannot straighten curly CNTs.A new method for CNTs assembly which combined fluidic alignment with DEP was proposed in this paper,which achieved good CNTs assembly with the choice of fluidic and DEP parameters and combination of fluidic alignment with DC or AC plus DC DEP.Compared with assembly with only DEP,combination with fluidic alignment can prevent adherence between CNTs and straighten CNTs,so that assembly efficiency is enhanced.Compared with fluidic alignment,combination with DEP can achieve assembly of CNTs in appointed positions.