We have a lot of interesting results but now it’s crunch time in the semester for proposals, travel, and exams. The lab is going on autopilot for the rest of the week. Meet the science bot who will be generating new project titles while I finish off this paperwork.
Looking at the induced-charge electroosmosis literature (blob at left) and the nanopore literature (blob at right) through some key papers, it seems that there aren’t very many connections between those areas yet. The green square represents one of the first papers on ICEO by Squires and Bazant in 2004, and the blue square is Siwy’s 2006 paper on ionic current rectification in nanopores. The gray circles represent papers that cited Squires or Siwy, plus all the papers in their bibliographies. Few direct links turn up. The purple circle is a thorough review paper by Schoch, Han, and Renaud and the most direct link between the two blobs. Both blobs study fluids around micro or nanostructures in applied electric fields, but the left blob is more math/physics/electrical engineering and the right, chemistry and biophysics. The left blob (Bert) really cares about metal-covered surfaces and microstructures. The right blob (Ernie) is capable of putting thin metal films on nanostructures, but does not always do this. I think Bert and Ernie should somehow use the purple circle to communicate, or add more circles in between.
We had four independent study* students this past summer. Students met weekly in the boardroom to troubleshoot and perfect their plans for world domination. Three of the projects provided new materials for our embedded systems course while helping out with our research, and one was a more classic research project where we needed a computer simulation done. The images above are based on their projects:
A. Reese Sexton: MAIM (Microcontroller Analog Input Module)
B. Jordan Meyer: NEPTUNE (Nanoporous Electroosmotic Pump To Usurp Nafion Electrodes)
C. Martin Dombi: SPATULA (Spiral Polymer Actuator Tester for Ultra Light Applications)
D. Sherman Dowell: MADMAN (Microcontroller-Based Acoustic Device for Making and Analyzing Noise)
Louisville people, equipment, and entire facilities were in motion more than usual this summer.
July and August of 2014 saw many changes in the neighborhood.
-We are now sharing a lab with Dr. Stuart J. Williams from Mechanical Engineering! He has moved on up (literally upstairs) and seems very excited about finally having a fume hood. We have previously been on committees together, sometimes attend the same conferences, and he taught one of my class sessions about his research. We share common interests in microfluidics, electrokinetics, and silicone goop. Welcome, Stuart and students!
-There’s a beautiful new GE/LocalMotors-sponsored creative facility, FirstBuild, within walking distance of the lab. They have tons of equipment for prototyping– initially focused on appliance engineering. Here’s their Grand Opening post. U of L will have a space that opens onto FirstBuild and we look forward to carrying out Capstone and other project-oriented courses in this exciting new environment.
-And continuing with the list of upgrades, Louisville’s hackerspace LVL1 outgrew its old building, and moved to a new one in Butchertown. Here is the ribbon-exploding ceremony video. Many Speed students take an active role in LVL1 after graduating–if you’re thinking about checking it out sooner, in my opinion that would be great. Head over to a Tuesday meeting.
Gold nanoplates from the O’Toole group are attached to a silicon dioxide surface in a microscale pattern.
We recently developed a microfluidic method for patterning light-absorbing nanomaterials on MEMS (microelectromechanical systems). The technique relies on a chemical bond between the surface and nanoplates from the O’Toole group, plus microfluidic channels to control where the nanoplates go. Figures (a) through (d) are electron microscope images at various size scales, and figure (e) shows an optical microscope image of the patterned nanoplates trapped under a polymer layer. This method is capable of patterning different types of nanoplates side-by-side. We’ll add it to the other nanoparticle-patterning methods in the lab, including stenciling, etching, inkjet printing, stamping and electron beam lithography.
