English

Enhanced dielectrophoresis of nanocolloids by dimer formation

Soft Condensed Matter 2009-11-13 v1

Abstract

We investigate the dielectrophoretic motion of charge-neutral, polarizable nanocolloids through molecular dynamics simulations. Comparison to analytical results derived for continuum systems shows that the discrete charge distributions on the nanocolloids have a significant impact on their coupling to the external field. Aggregation of nanocolloids leads to enhanced dielectrophoretic transport, provided that increase in the dipole moment upon aggregation can overcome the related increase in friction. The dimer orientation and the exact structure of the nanocolloid charge distribution are shown to be important in the enhanced transport.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0704.3112,
  title  = {Enhanced dielectrophoresis of nanocolloids by dimer formation},
  author = {Emppu Salonen and Emma Terama and Ilpo Vattulainen and Mikko Karttunen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0704.3112},
  year   = {2009}
}