Selective assembly in deformable systems using templated assembly by selective removal

The current work presents the first demonstration of successful assembly of deformable polymer microspheres on patterned rigid substrates using Templated Assembly by Selective Removal (TASR). Also presented is a quantitative model for predicting the successful self-assembly of deformable materials using TASR. Successful assembly of silica microspheres using TASR on a silicon template carried out in previous work has established that the technique works effectively for assembly of hard materials on a rigid substrate. However, the situation for the assembly of soft materials is different. In systems comprising soft materials, the contact area between the two mating surfaces can potentially change via deformation which influences the shape matching between the component and the substrate that TASR relies on as its underlying principle. The contact area at the interface is in turn decided by the nature of contact between the two interacting surfaces. Therefore, the Hertzian elastic theory for contact between a sphere was used for deciding whether the assembly of two new materials is attributed to shape matching or to plastic deformation. In accordance with the stated hypothesis, it was concluded that the assembly of Polystyrene (PS) microspheres on a rigid substrate such as silicon will yield successful results. Experiments were conducted to confirm this deduction from theoretical analysis.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Agarwal, Gunjan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Carol Livermore.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

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

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/50571

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/50571