 Dr. Aubry is Professor and Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Her awards include the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and her election as Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). She currently serves as Chair of the U.S. National Committee for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (USNC/TAM) under the auspices of the National Academies. She is also a member of the Congress Committee of the International Union for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) and was appointed Chair of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) delegation to the IUTAM General Assembly. In addition, she has been serving on many APS and ASME committees, numerous NSF and National Research Council review panels and a certain number of international boards of foreign institutions. | Carnegie Mellon's Nadine Aubry, Colleague Pushpendra Singh Work To Find Method for Improved Self-Assembly of Nanoparticles PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University's Nadine Aubry and colleague Pushpendra Singh of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) are leading a research team to develop a manufacturing strategy that could improve technologies used in tissue engineering and information technology. Aubry, head of Carnegie Mellon's Mechanical Engineering Department, and Singh, an engineering professor at NJIT, have developed a new way of herding nano/micro-particles into highly ordered two-dimensional lattices (monolayers) with adjustable spacing between the particles. The team's research, reported last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA journal, shows how the use of electric fields and fluid- fluid interfaces can be judiciously used to develop new materials with special properties to increase the efficiency of drug delivery patches, solar cells and the next generation of high-performance computing. "This new manufacturing strategy could revolutionize the way we design two-dimensional nanomaterials with adaptable microscopic structures and desired properties," said Aubry, who was recently named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for her outstanding contributions to the field of fluid dynamics. The research team found they could control the particle distribution, particularly uncharged particles, at a fluid-fluid interface by applying an electric field. Without an electric field, particles self assemble. But they self assemble under capillary action, which make particles attract one another at the free-surface of a liquid. This is the same action we experience when our cereal flakes regroup at the surface of a bowl of milk. This self-assembly via capillary action has serious flaws. Some of those flaws include an inability to manipulate small-sized particles and adjust the porosity of the resulting material. There are also inherent defects in the particle patterns. "What is fascinating, is that the presence of an electric field can remedy all these deficiencies," Aubry said. |
The research team shows that their new technique creates forces capable of assembling micron-sized particles and theoretically predicts that the method should apply to nanoparticles as well.
"We are extremely excited about the new self-assembly method because it offers flexibility, precision and simplicity," Aubry said. ###
Contact: Chriss SWaney swaney@andrew.cmu.edu 412-268-5776 Carnegie Mellon University
About Carnegie Mellon: Carnegie Mellon is a private research university with a distinctive mix of programs in engineering, computer science, robotics, business, public policy, fine arts and the humanities. More than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students receive an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation.
A small student-to-faculty ratio provides an opportunity for close interaction between the students and professors. While technology is pervasive on its 144-acre Pittsburgh campus, Carnegie Mellon is also distinctive among leading research universities for the world-renowned programs in its College of Fine Arts. A global university, Carnegie Mellon has campuses in Silicon Valley, Calif., and Qatar, and programs in Asia, Australia and Europe. For more, see www.cmu.edu.
Tags: Nano or Nanotechnology and Nanotech or Carnegie Mellon University and self-assemby or nanoparticles
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