Modeling dielectrophoretic force for manipulating carbon nanotubes (CNTs)

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. The use of dielectrophoresis (DEP) has been established as a course towards the efficient separation of metallic carbon nanotubes from semiconducting carbon nanotubes. It is also a method for controlled assembly of the CNTs on microstructures that have the plausibility to be scaled to wafer-level manufacturing. For this reason, in this paper, a new mathematical model for dielectrophoretic for applied to nanotubes have been developed. Simulation results are presented in the paper to verify the developed dielectrophoretic force model. The developed model can significantly improve the separation of semiconducting and metallic band structure carbon nanotubes, ultimately providing a critical and major step towards the use of carbon nanotubes in the manufacturing of electronics and sensors for potential use in electrical circuits, as fiber and film, computer circuits, light bulb filament, ultracapacitors, combat jackets, etc. ©2007 IEEE.