Professor Wei Lu
The Nanotechweb article Aligned nanoparticles get ready for applications said
Aligned coated nanoparticles have many applications from advanced materials to nanodevices but as-made nanoparticles are almost always randomly oriented. Now, a team of scientists at the University of Michigan has developed an approach to rigorously calculate the torque on core-shell nanoparticles and describe how they rotate under an applied electric field. The study could lead to new methods of controlling the orientation and assembly of functionalized nanoparticles in the future.
“Our study revealed rich behaviors and a significant degree of experimental control over nanoparticle orientation,” explained Lu. “For instance, the core-shell showed frequency-dependent behavior that can be exploited to direct nanoparticles in any designed orientation.”
“The work could help construct multifunctional materials by controlling the orientation and distribution of the nanoparticles,” said Lu.
Professor Wei Lu is an international leader on self-assembled
nanostructures.
Wei
Lu, Ph.D. is Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department
University of Michigan.
Wei earned his Ph.D. from the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Department, Princeton University, and joined the faculty of Mechanical
Engineering Department, University of Michigan in 2001. He received his
BS from Tsinghua University in 1994.
His research interests include nanoscale self-assembly, nanostructure
evolution, and mechanical properties of nanostructures. He is associate
editor for the
Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience.
His many awards include US Air Force summer faculty fellow, the
Robert M. Caddell Memorial Research Achievement Award, the Career award
by the US National Science Foundation, and the Robert J. McGrattan Award
by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Wei coauthored Self-assembly
of functionally gradient nanoparticle
structures,
A
local
semi-implicit level-set method for interface motion, Creep
flow,
diffusion, and electromigration in small scale
interconnects, Three-dimensional
model of electrostatically induced pattern
formation
in thin polymer films, Engineering
nanophase self-assembly with elastic
field, Patterning
multilayers of molecules via self-organization,
Patterning
nanoscale structures by surface chemistry,
Monolayer
pattern evolution via substrate strain-mediated spinodal
decomposition, and Dynamics
of nanoscale pattern formation of an epitaxial
monolayer.