The effect of electrode physical design parameters on the assembly of single-walled carbon nanotubes by AC dielectrophoresis

In this paper, we investigated the influence of electrode structure parameters on the assembly of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) by the dielectrophoresis (DEP) process. W/Au electrodes with different structure parameters were designed, prepared and then used to assemble SWCNTs 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 SWCNTs and the electrode. The variation of electrode parameters such as the finger width (W), gap of adjacent fingers (GX) and gap of opposed fingers (G Y) can have significant impacts on the assembly productivity. Optimum for high assembly productivity of single-bundle of SWCNTs was discussed and proposed at last. ? 2011 IEEE.EI