Purdue University – Page 4 – TechConnect Briefs

Towards Microrobots with Insect-Like Dexterity

Clark J.V., Li F., Clark J.V., Purdue University, US

In this paper we analyze a pioneering mechanism ‘solid state muscles’ that facilitates insect-like dexterity for autonomous and robust microscale robotics. The results of our efforts are expected to at lead to the following microrobot [...]

Using MEMS as Self-Calibrating Force-Displacement Transducers: A Computational Study

Clark J.V., Li F., Lee H., Kadasia K., Purdue University, US

Accurate and precise measurements of forces and displacements are critical to the improved understanding, discovery, and prediction of micro- and nanoscale phenomena. Since geometric and material properties of MEMS vary from run to run, it [...]

Tuning the electronic and chemical surface properties of graphane combining alkali deposition and low-energy ion irradiation

Heim B., Allain J.P., Zemlyanov D., Taylor C.N., El-Atwani O., Purdue University, US

The presence of defects in graphene due to thin-film processing can lead to alterations of its electronic properties. Tuning of graphene’s electronic properties could be achieved through control of thermal deposition of alkaline dopants (e.g. [...]

An Online Tool for Simulating Electro-Thermo-Mechanical Flexures Using Distributed and Lumped Analyses

Li F., Clark J.V., Purdue University, US

We present an online software tool that enables both novices and experts to quickly and fairly accurately model and simulate an electro-thermo-mechanical microdevice. We model and simulate a MEMS thermal actuator by coupling finite element [...]

Generating Hydrogen on Demand by Splitting Water with Al Rich Alloys

Woodall J.M., Ziebarth J., Allen J. Jeon C.R., Choi G., Purdue University, US

Our group has been pioneering the production of on-demand hydrogen using aluminum-gallium alloys to split water into hydrogen, heat, and alumina. Recently, we have found that we can split water on demand using solid alloys [...]

Assembly of Nanoscale Scaffolds from Peptide Nucleic Acids (PNA)

Husk Jr. T., Bergstrom D.E., Purdue University, US

Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA has been demonstrated to be a useful scaffold for self-assembling nanomaterials. Peptide nucleic acids, or PNA, which retains the nucleic acid bases adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine on a pseudo-peptide backbone [...]

Towards an efficient multidisciplinary system-level framework for designing and modeling complex engineered microsystems

Clark J.V., Zeng Y., Jha P., Purdue University, US

We present advances in designing and modeling complex microsystems at the network/system-level. For design, we develop a graphical user interface that allows users to quickly configure complex systems in 3D using a computer mouse or [...]

Characterization of Cellulose Nanocrystals by SPM

Lahiji R.R., Reifenberger R., Moon R.J., Rudie A., Purdue University, US

Cellulose is the world’s most abundant biopolymer and is present in virtually all plants. Its main function is to act as a reinforcement material. Cellulose is a linear chain of ringed glucose monomers ((C6H10O5)n; n=10 [...]

DNA-Associated Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes as a Platform for Drug Delivery

Dolash B.D., Lahiji R.R., Zemlyanov D.Y., Reifenberger R., Bergstrom D.E., Purdue University, US

DNA-associated single walled carbon nanotubes(DNA:SWCNTs) have shown potential in drug delivery with the ability to translocate across the cell membrane carrying various biomolecules. Our laboratory has completed a series of experiments to show the sonication [...]

Development of Peptide Nucleic Acid Assemblies for Application in Drug Delivery and Molecular Sensing

Butler F.N., Elibol O., Hines B.D., Reddy Jr. B., Bashir R., Bergstrom D.E., Purdue University, US

We are exploring peptide nucleic acid (PNA) assemblies as interesting scaffolds for the fabrication of nanomaterials relevant to the diagnosis and treatment of disease. The first assembly is a PNA/LNA (locked nucleic acid) duplex employed [...]