Automated electrokinetic stretcher for manipulating nanomaterials
In this work, we present an automated platform for trapping and stretching individual micro- and nanoscale objects in solution using electrokinetic forces. The platform can trap objects at the stagnation point of a planar elongational electrokinetic field for long time scales, as demonstrated by the...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/171424 |
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| Institution: | Nanyang Technological University |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | In this work, we present an automated platform for trapping and stretching individual micro- and nanoscale objects in solution using electrokinetic forces. The platform can trap objects at the stagnation point of a planar elongational electrokinetic field for long time scales, as demonstrated by the trapping of <100 nm polystyrene beads and DNA molecules for minutes, with a standard deviation in displacement from the trap center <1 μm. This capability enables the stretching of deformable nanoscale objects in a high-throughput fashion, as illustrated by the stretching of more than 400 DNA molecules within ∼4 hours. The flexibility of the electrokinetic stretcher opens up numerous possibilities for complex manipulation, with sequential stretching of a molecule at different voltages and multiple stretch-relaxation cycles of the same molecule as examples. The platform described provides an automated, high-throughput method to track and manipulate objects for real-time studies of micro- and nanoscale systems. |
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