Geometry-induced electrostatic trapping, levitation and assembly of nanometric objects in a fluid
Event details
| Date | 15.10.2010 |
| Hour | 11:00 |
| Speaker | Dr. Madhari Krishnan, ETHZ |
| Location |
MEB10
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
The ability to trap an object — whether a single atom or a macroscopic entity — affects fields as diverse as quantum optics, soft condensed-matter physics, biophysics and clinical medicine. Many sophisticated methodologies have been developed to counter the randomizing effect of Brownian motion in solution, but stable trapping of nanometre-sized objects remains challenging. I will show that a fluidic slit with appropriately tailored topography has a spatially modulated electrostatic potential that can trap and levitate charged objects in solution for up to several hours. Gold particles, polymer beads and lipid vesicles with diameters of tens of nanometres are all trapped without external intervention and independently of their mass and dielectric function [1]. The stiffness and stability of this electrostatic trap is easily tuned by adjusting the system geometry and the ionic strength of the solution, and it lends itself to integration with other manipulation mechanisms. These features will allow its use for contact-free confinement of single proteins and macromolecules, and the sorting and fractionation of nanometre-sized objects or their assembly into high-density arrays.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Contact
- Carole Berthet