Precision pipetting and crack-free colloidal assembly

Applications involving millimeter and micrometer scale liquid handling combine precision instrumentation and capillary-driven fluid mechanics. This thesis develops two such applications. First, a design for a single handheld pipette that may draw and dispense liquid volumes spanning the range of an entire suite of current commercial pipettes is presented. The design, construction and validation of a proof-of-concept prototype device for this universal micropipette concept is reported, along with practical considerations for implementation and possible commercialization. Second, a direct-write method to build freestanding colloidal structures via capillary-driven self-assembly from a needle is reported. A scaling law is derived that governs the rate of assembly, as well as a criterion for the initiation of cracks, thereby explaining how to build crack-free structures over a wide range of particle sizes.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Beroz, Justin(Justin Douglas)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• A. John Hart.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122132

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122132