NSF REU Site Renewal: Interfaces and Surfaces
Summer 2015
Faculty Advisor Project Submission
Nanorippling liquid surface on demand with magnetic nanorods
Faculty Advisor: Prof. Konstantin Kornev (Department of Materials Science and
Engineering)
Research Project: In optofluidic applications, one needs to manipulate the light on demand
using different means enabling remote control of the light propagation, reflection, and
polarization [1, 2]. Colloids of magnetic nanorods appear to be a convenient liquid where
nanorods can be aligned on demand for the light guiding [1, 3-5]. A wide range of magnetic
materials can be electrochemically grown in the form of nanorods and then functionalized to be
dispersible in different liquid carriers [4, 6, 7]. Using uniform magnetic field or field gradient,
these nanorods can be ordered in different lattices with a high degree of nanoscale order [3-5].
Most recently, a new class of magnetic nanorods and nanorod structures has been developed via
collaborative research between Clemson University (Kornev & Luzinov’group) and Clarkson
University (Prof. Sergei Minko) [8, 9]. This work created a class of magnetic structures that can
be reconfigured on demand by using different stimuli.
Research Expectations for REU Participant: The REU student involved in this project will
explore the potential application of magnetic nanorods to ripple the free liquid surface on
demand making different surface pattern using external magnetic field. These structures can find
important applications in oprofluidics when one needs to chnge the color of incident light: the
nanoripples forming a photonic crystal can effectively disperse the light. The student will
synthesize Ni and Co nanorods using electrochemical template synthesis, graft nanorod surface
with polymer nanolayer, characterize magnetic properties of nanorods, and learn how to form
different patterns at the liquid surface using magnetic filed. The student will have hands-on
experience on using electrochemical cells, potentiostate, magnetomenter, and different optical
instruments and lasers. The student will be challenged to build a test optofluidic cell with the
help of a graduate student.
Bibliography
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5.
Tokarev, A., Rubin, B., Bedford, M., and Kornev, K.G. (2010). Magnetic Nanorods for
Optofluidic Applications. AIP Conference Proceedings 1311, 204-209.
Malynych, S.Z., Tokarev, A., Hudson, S., Chumanov, G., Ballato, J., and Kornev, K.G.
(2010). Magneto-controlled illumination with opto-fluidics. Journal of Magnetism and
Magnetic Materials 322, 1894-1897.
Gu, Y., Burtovyy, R., Townsend, J., Owens, J.R., Luzinov, A., and Kornev, K.G. (2013).
Collective alignment of nanorods in thin Newtonian films. Soft Matter.
Gupta, M.K., Kulkarni, D.D., Geryak, R., Naik, S., and Tsukruk, V.V. (2012). A Robust
and Facile Approach To Assembling Mobile and Highly-Open Unfrustrated Triangular
Lattices from Ferromagnetic Nanorods. Nano Letters 13, 36-42.
Kornev, K.G., Halverson, D., Korneva, G., Gogotsi, Y., and Fridman, G. (2008).
Magnetostatic interactions between carbon nanotubes filled with magnetic nanoparticles.
Applied Physics Letters 92, 233117.
NSF REU Site Renewal: Interfaces and Surfaces
Summer 2015
Faculty Advisor Project Submission
6.
7.
8.
9.
Bentley, A.K., Ellis, A.B., Lisensky, G.C., and Crone, W.C. (2005). Suspensions of
nickel nanowires as magneto-optical switches. Nanotechnology 16, 2193-2196.
Bentley, A.K., Farhoud, M., Ellis, A.B., Lisensky, G.C., Nickel, A.M.L., and Crone,
W.C. (2005). Template synthesis and magnetic manipulation of nickel nanowires. J.
Chem. Educ. 82, 765-768.
Grigoryev, A., Tokarey, T., Kornev, K.G., Luzinov, I., and Minko, S. (2012).
Superomniphobic Magnetic Microtextures with Remote Wetting Control. Journal of the
American Chemical Society 134, 12916-12919.
Motornov, M., Malynych, S.Z., Pippalla, D.S., Zdyrko, B., Royter, H., Roiter, Y.,
Kahabka, M., Tokarev, A., Tokarev, I., Zhulina, E., et al. (2012). Field-directed selfassembly with locking nanoparticles. Nano Letters 12, 3814-3820.