Determination of carbon nanocoil orientation by dielectrophoresis

The alignment of carbon nanocoils (CNCs) has been demonstrated by electrophoresis and dielectrophoresis. In the case of DC electric field, while most of all CNCs moved toward a cathode and formed a chain structure in a suspension, no CNC alignment was observed after the evaporation of the suspension. In contrast, in the case of AC electric field with a frequency higher than 1 kHz, the CNCs were aligned along the electric field and connected to each other even after the evaporation of the suspension. This difference is discussed in terms of the fluidic perturbation of the suspension.