Advances in Model Development for Carbon Nanotube Assembly by Dielectrophoresis

Abstract

As a new type of materials, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been intensively studied due to their outstanding properties. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is an effective method to assemble CNTs across a pair of electrical conductors for various applications. In DEP, CNTs suspended in dielectric liquid medium suffer a force imbalance due to induced dipole moment when subject to an externally applied non-uniform electric field, and move towards and finally deposit onto the electrode region. As a model plays a critical role in the numerical study of the DEP process, this paper introduces the theoretical background of DEP and basic DEP models based on the effective dipole moment method which has been widely accepted in the study of DEP. Particularly, the DEP force calculation methods developed recently for improved precision using these basic models are presented and discussed. A DEP model with high computing accuracy helps precisely predict a DEP process.