The Influence of Experimental Parameters on the Assembly of SWNTs by AC Dielectrophoresis

In this paper, we investigated the influence of experimental parameters on the assembly of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) by dielectrophoresis (DEP) process. Designed experimental parameters were adopted to assemble SWNTs by DEP. I-V characteristics were measured and the assembled number of electrodes was enumerated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that there was an ohmic contact formed between the assembled metallic SWNTs and the electrode. The variation of experimental parameters such as the SWNT solution concentration, deposition time, voltage magnitude and frequency can have significant impacts on the assembly productivity. Optimum for high assembly productivity of single-bundle of SWNTs was discussed and proposed at last. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.Instruments & InstrumentationEICPCI-S(ISTP)