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Date of Award
2014
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Chemical Engineering (MS)
College, School or Department Name
Department of Chemical Engineering
First Advisor
Adrienne Minerick
Abstract
Graphene paper is a novel material that features outstanding electrical and thermal properties owing to the unique chemical structure of graphene. Separately, dielectrophoresis (DEP) has been used in microfluidic devices to trap, sort, and identify particles/cells, with the advantages of low sample volume requirements and fast analysis. The three dimensional (3D) DEP microdevice constructed from graphene paper and double sided tape that is described in this thesis has higher sample throughput and more versatile functionalities than traditional two dimensional (2D) DEP devices. To characterize the device, we conducted a series of alternating current (AC) DEP experiments on 6.08 μm diameter polystyrene beads suspended in a spectrum of conductivities from 1.0 × 10-4 S/m to 1.3 S/m. The experimental results agree with both theoretical predictions and previously reported experiment values. This device will be instrumental in testing red blood cells for cholesterol inclusion in the membrane, which is more closely coupled to adverse cardiovascular events than currently measured plasma cholesterol. This subsequent work is important because the 3D graphene paper microdevice may be able to discern membrane cholesterol in a point of care diagnostic microdevice.
Recommended Citation
Xie, Hongyu, "DEVELOPMENT OF A THREE-DIMENSIONAL GRAPHENE ELECTRODE DIELECTROPHORETIC DEVICE", Master's Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2014.