Micro and Nanotechnology
Micro- and Nanotechnology has a cutting edge research and teaching focus that encompasses theory, fabrication, and characterization in a wide range of interest areas spanning the University discovery themes of Health and Wellness, Food Production and Safety, and Energy and the Environment. These efforts are supported by state of the art micro/nano-technology facilities at OSU such as The Nanotech West Lab, which is the largest (over 10,000 square feet) nanotechnology user facility in the state of Ohio, and The Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis, which is one of the largest concentrations of electron and ion beam analytical microscopy instruments in North America, and the Ohio Supercomputing Center.
Research topics under this area include:
- Biological Nanotechnology (Agarwal, Castro, Cho, Prakash, Song, M. Srinivasan, Su) – uses of nano- or micro- technology to study natural systems ranging from single biomolecules up to biological tissues or the development of novel nano-devices from biological materials. Examples of projects include development of self-assembled nanomachines, novel drug delivery vehicles, the characterization of micro/nanoscale biological adhesion or filtration mechanisms.
- Micro- and nano-fluidics (Hoelzle, Mazumder, Prakash, Song) – covers the theoretical and computational study or fabrication and testing of micro- or nano-scale fluidic platforms. Projects range from studying the fundamental behavior of fluids at these length scales often involving multi-physics phenomena to the development of lab on a chip type platforms for example for biomedical diagnostics or water desalination.
- Nanomaterials (Agarwal, Cao, Castro, Cho, Heremans, Zhai) – focuses on the assembly, characterization, and modeling of materials at the atomic or molecular scale. Example projects include surface characterization of nanostructured materials or lubricated structures, development of novel thermoelectric nanomaterials for energy storage or power generation, and smart nanomaterials for sensing or chemical separation applications.
- MEMS/NEMS (Cao, Cho, Hereid, Heremans, Hoelzle, Khafizov, Prakash, Su) – covers the development of novel micro/nano-electromechanical systems or fabrication methods. Projects in this area include the development of micro- and nano- robotic systems, novel actuators and chemical sensors, and imaging and diagnostic technologies.