Rapid assembly of carbon nanotubes for nanosensing by dielectrophoretic force

The carbon nanotube (CNT) has been widely studied for its electrical, mechanical, and chemical properties since its discovery. However, to manipulate these nanosize tubes, atomic force microscopy (AFM) is typically used to manipulate them one-by-one. This is time-consuming and unrealistic for batch fabrication. In this paper, we will present the manipulation of carbon nanotubes using dielectrophoretic manipulation to rapidly build practical nanosensors. Thus far, we have demonstrated thermal sensors for temperature and fluid-flow measurements. We have also shown that this electrokinetic based manipulation technique is compatible with MEMS fabrication processes, and hence, MEMS structures embedded with carbon nanotube sensing elements can be built in the future with new functionalities.