Jared Burdick

Carbon-nanotube-induced acceleration of catalytic nanomotors.

Synthetic nanoscale motors represent a major step toward the development of practical nanomachines. Despite impressive progress, man-made nanomachines lack the efficiency and speed of their biological counterparts. Here we show that the incorporation of carbon nanotubes (CNT) into the platinum (Pt) component of asymmetric metal nanowire motors leads to dramatically accelerated movement in hydrogen-peroxide solutions, with average speeds (50-60 microm/s) approaching those of natural biomolecular motors. Further acceleration to 94 microm/s, with some motors moving above 200 microm/sis observed upon adding hydrazine to the peroxide fuel. Factors influencing the accelerated movement, including the CNT loading and fuel concentration, are examined. Such development of highly efficient and controllable nanomotors offers great promise for self-powered nanoscale transport and delivery systems.

Synthetic Nanomotors in Microchannel Networks: Directional Microchip Motion and Controlled Manipulation of Cargo

We illustrate the use of catalytic nanowire motors for directional motion and microscale transport of cargo within microfluidic channel networks. The CNT-based synthetic nanomotor can propel a large cargo load at high speeds through predetermined paths and junctions of the microchannel network. The magnetic properties of the nickel-containing nanomotors offer controlled cargo manipulations, including en-route load, drag, and release. Such use of synthetic nanomachines can lead to chemically powered versatile laboratory-on-a-chip devices performing a series of tasks simultaneously or sequentially.

High-throughput templated multisegment synthesis of gold nanowires and nanorods.

A cost-effective, high-throughput method for generating gold nanowires and/or nanorods based on a multisegment template electrodeposition approach is described. Using this method, multiple nanowires/nanorods can be generated from a single pore of alumina template membranes by alternately depositing segments of desirable (e.g., gold) and non-desirable metals (e.g., silver), followed by dissolution of the template and the non-desirable metal. Critical cost analysis indicates substantial savings in material requirements, processing times, and processing costs compared to the commonly used single-segment method. In addition to solid gold nanowires/nanorods, high yields of porous gold nanowires/nanorods are obtained by depositing alternate segments of gold-silver alloy and silver from the same gold-silver plating solution followed by selective dissolution of the silver from both segments. It is anticipated that this high-throughput method for synthesizing solid and porous gold nanowires and nanorods will accelerate their use in sensing, electronic, and biomedical applications.

Orthogonal Multi-Readout Identification of Alloy Nanowire Barcodes

A multi-readout orthogonal detection of alloy nanowire barcodes is shown to maximize the identification power of such encoded nanostructures. The built-in redundancy associated with the simultaneous use of several independent and powerful readout modes, based on different distinct processes and phenomena, offers great promise for decoding barcoded nanomaterials and for meeting the major challenges of product protection and multiplexed biodetection.