Dynamic modeling of rotational motion of carbon nanotubes for intelligent manufacturing of CNT-based devices

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are good candidates for many electronics and sensing applications. These applications will require moving (deposit) and orienting carbon nanotubes to specific location, and separating CNTs with semiconducting and metallic band structure. In this paper, a new mathematical model describing precisely the rotational motion of carbon nanotubes in viscous medium (acetone) is presented. This new mathematical model correctly assumes that carbon nanotubes form a line shape after undergoing AC electric field compare to existing model that assumes carbon nanotubes to be a spherical particle. The new mathematical model is based on a newly developed model for applied torque due to electrorotation. It is also a method for controlled assembly of the CNTs on microstructures that have the plausibility to be scaled to wafer-level manufacturing. Simulation results are presented for the developed models. The developed model can be used to detect the position of carbon nanotubes and further implemented in the separation of semiconducting and metallic band structure carbon nanotubes. ©2007 IEEE.