Nano Gripper using Carbon Nanotube
J-S Lee, S-K Kwon, J-S Choi, G-S Kang, Y-K Kwak, S-H Kim
Keywords: carbon nanotube, nano probe, tungsten tip, electrochemical etching
In this paper, we proposed a nano gripper that was made from two nano probes. And, those nano probes were made from the tungsten tip and multi-wall carbon nanotube with acrylic adhesive under optical microscope. We used the electrochemical etching method to make tungsten tip used in nano gripper. With the electrochemical etching, the diameter at the end of tungsten tip was reduced from 500_ to a few _. In Figure 1, the tip manufactured in this process is shown with normal and fine images. The multi-wall carbon nanotube grown by the chemical vapor deposition method was used. It is possible to make nano probe with the mechanical contact and acrylic adhesive such as carbon tape. We used two tungsten tips to make nano probe. The procedure was monitored with the optical microscope and the detail images were captured with the scanning electron microscope. The overall process to make nano probe is shown in Figure 2. The image in Figure 2(d) is the nano probe made through this process. The length of the carbon nanotube in nano probe made by the previous method was various depending on the growth condition of carbon nanotube. So, in this paper, we proposed a new method to cut the carbon nanotube with electrochemical etching. The potassium hydroxide solution was used as the electrolyte. The cutting accuracy is about a few hundreds _ due to the surface tension of electrolyte. The immersed length of the carbon nanotube in electrolyte can be controlled by the nano stage such as piezo actuator. In Figure 3, there are images of nano probe that the length of carbon nanotube was shortened by the method proposed in this paper. All process was monitored with the optical microscope. We made a nano gripper using two nano probes. Two nano probes were approached to each other by nano stages under optical microscope. The gap size at the end of carbon nanotube in nano probe was reduced to about 1 or 2 _, and the nano probes were fixed at that position. The nano gripper can be applied for the handling of nano object depending on the applied voltage. In this paper, we proposed a new method to make nano gripper using two nano probes. We also proposed to cut the carbon nanotube in the nano probe with a few hundreds _ resolution. With this method, it is convenient to make nano gripper with carbon nanotube.
Nanotech 2004 Conference Technical Program Abstract