Influence of induced-charge electrokinetic phenomena on the dielectrophoretic assembly of gold nanoparticles in a conductive-island-based microelectrode system.

Metal nanoparticles in a liquid suspension can be assembled dielectrophoretically (DEP) into nanoparticle chains, which can serve as electrical functional microwires connecting isolated and conductive elements to an electrode pair, as used in wet electronics, bioelectronics, and biochemical sensors. The frequency-dependent morphology of these nanoparticle chains assembled between an electrode pair has even been attributed to the decreasing magnitude of alternating current electroosmosis (ACEO) flow velocity with driving frequency. For instance, highly oriented nanoparticle nanowires can be generated by DEP assembly only at a high frequency, which induces a negligible small ACEO above the electrode surface, corresponding to fewer nanoparticles transported to the assembly region. In this study, attention is focused on the formation of nanoparticle chains in a conductive-island-based microelectrode system. It is worth noting that the intrusion of an island entity can bring about further double-layer polarization and induced charge electroosmosis flow (ICEO) around this conductive object, which exerts a significant influence on DEP assembly. In our experiments, the ends of nanoparticle chains are always extended onto the metal surfaces at 50 kHz, and their central parts become slender at 150 kHz. Meanwhile, wire-shaped particle clusters aligned along the direction of local field lines are more densely distributed at the island rims than that growing from the electrode edges. Consequently, a series of numerical modeling based on the theory of induced charge electrokinetic phenomena are introduced to account for these regular experimental results, including the double-layer charging effect at the metal/electrolyte interface, ACEO, ICEO, and electrothermal flow. Mutual DEP is also treated as an important factor affecting DEP behavior when neighboring particles are approaching one another. The results from the theoretical study are in good agreement with the experimental observations.