Rapid Fabrication of Nanomaterial Electrodes Using Digitally Controlled Electrokinetics

Author

Na Liu ; Wenfeng Liang ; Mai, John D. ; Lianqing Liu ; Gwo-Bin Lee ; Li, Wen

Author_Institution

State Key Lab. of Robot., Shenyang Inst. of Autom., Shenyang, China

Volume

13

Issue

2

fYear

2014

fDate

Mar-14

Firstpage

245

Lastpage

253

Abstract

We present here a new process for fabricating polymeric electrodes based on a composite solution of conductive polyaniline (PANI) particles and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) using an optically induced electrokinetics (OEK) chip. Based on this method:1) polymeric electrodes with different geometric sizes can be fabricated within 1-3 min by projecting digitally generated images into an OEK chip; 2) polymeric electrodes with different electrical conductivities can be fabricated from composite solutions with different MWCNT concentrations; and 3) fabricated polymeric electrodes are used to assemble MWCNTs sensing elements via dielectrophoresis (DEP) and used for detecting ethanol. The electrical conductivity of these nanomaterial-based polymeric electrodes and the DEP-assembled sensor is analyzed before, during, and after exposure to ethanol. In summary, digitally controlled electrokinetics is demonstrated to be a novel method for rapidly fabricating polymeric sensing electrodes.

Keywords

carbon nanotubes; chemical sensors; conducting polymers; electrical conductivity; electrochemical electrodes; electrophoresis; gas sensors; nanocomposites; nanofabrication; C; DEP; DEP-assembled sensor; MWCNT; OEK chip; PANI; composite solution; conductive polyaniline particles; dielectrophoresis; digitally controlled electrokinetics; digitally generated images; electrical conductivities; ethanol detection; geometric sizes; multiwalled carbon nanotubes; nanomaterial-based polymeric electrodes; optically induced electrokinetics; polymeric sensing electrodes; sensing elements; Conductivity; Electrodes; Fabrication; Force; Plastics; Polymers; Substrates; Conductive polymers; microsensor; microstructures; nanostructures; optically induced dielectrophoresis (ODEP); optically induced electrokinetics (OEK);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nanotechnology, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1536-125X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNANO.2014.2298400

Filename

6704777