Immobilization of single-walled carbon nanotubes by dielectrophoresis using a microfluidic channel

The initial goal of this project was to determine by experimenting on a chip that where already design the ideal parameters for the dielectrophoresis of single walled carbon nanotubes. The epidemic blocking the access to the lab, the subject evolved to focus more on the literature study to compare the different parameters used in the literature for the dielectrophoresis and try to come up with a proposition of parameters to be tested on the chip by someone having access to the laboratory. The dielectrophoresis being the subject of a lot of studies as it is believed to be one of the best solution to build devices with carbon nanotubes, the literature on the subject is huge. It was impossible to take into account all the articles on the subject so this report is based only on the more relevant ones. The motivation behind this project is to find the best parameters possible for the dieletrophoresis in order to immobilized specific nanotubes for specific applications. The first specific application is the immobilization of nanotubes filled with metal-oxide precursors. This could enable the growth of an oxide where the nanotubes are immobilized enabling the fabrication of really small gas sensor based on metal-oxide. The second application presented is the immobilization of DNA functionalized nanotubes which can be used as bioreceptors enabling the detection of specific biomarkers. This could facilitate the fabrication of biosensors. This review show the most important parameters of the dielectrophoresis and how their modification impact the end results. By analyzing the results in the literature and based on the little experimentation made on the platform that was developed for this project, a set of parameters enabling the immobilization of one to a few single walled carbon nanotubes were determined.