Ultrasound directed self-assembly of user-specified patterns of nanoparticles dispersed in a fluid medium
Abstract
We employ an ultrasound wave field generated by one or more ultrasound transducers to organize large quantities of nanoparticles dispersed in a fluid medium into two-dimensional user-specified patterns. To accomplish this, we theoretically derive a direct method of calculating the ultrasound transducer parameters required to assemble a user-specified pattern of nanoparticles. The computation relates the ultrasound wave field and the force acting on the nanoparticles to the ultrasound transducer parameters by solving a constrained optimization problem. We experimentally demonstrate this method for carbon nanoparticles in a water reservoir and observe good agreement between experiment and theory. This method works for any simply closed fluid reservoir geometry and any arrangement of ultrasound transducers, and it enables using ultrasound directed self-assembly as a scalable fabrication technique that may facilitate a myriad of engineering applications, including fabricating engineered materials with patterns of nanoscale inclusions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Mar 07, 2016
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4943634
Entities
People
- B. Raeymaekers
- F. Guevara Vasquez
- J. Greenhall
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- University of Utah