Citation: Hui Li, Zhenjie Zhao, Bingqiang Ji, Jun Ma, Xuwu Zhang, Jingzhao Chen, Zhangran Ye, Zuankai Wang, Liqiang Zhang, Jianyu Huang, Yingdan Liu. Electric tweezer for single microscopic particle trapping[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2026, 37(3): 110655. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2024.110655 shu

Electric tweezer for single microscopic particle trapping

Hui Li ^a ,
Zhenjie Zhao ^b ,
Bingqiang Ji ^c ,
Jun Ma ^a ,
Xuwu Zhang ^d ,
Jingzhao Chen ^a ,
Zhangran Ye ^a ,
Zuankai Wang ^e ,
Liqiang Zhang ^{a, *,} ,
Jianyu Huang ^{a, *,} ,
Yingdan Liu ^{b, *,}

a.
Clean Nano Energy Center, State Key Lab of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, and College of Materials Science and Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
b.
Center for Advanced Structural Materials, State Key Lab of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, and College of Materials Science and Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
c.
School of Astronautics, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
d.
Nano-biotechnology Key Lab of Hebei Province, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
e.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China

lqzhang@ysu.edu.cn

jhuang@ysu.edu.cn

ydliu@ysu.edu.cn

Received Date: 21 September 2024
Revised Date: 7 November 2024
Accepted Date: 19 November 2024
Available Online: 26 November 2024

Figures(4)

Trapping and manipulating microscopic particles (micron or nano) in a liquid environment are of great significance for research and applications in nanoscience, engineering, and biomedicine. Although optical tweezers, magnetic tweezers, acoustic tweezers, etc. have been successfully developed, it is still challenging to separate, select, and manipulate micron and submicron particles with comparable morphologies and sizes in trace amounts of liquids with high viscosity and extremely tiny concentrations. Herein, an electric tweezer with measurable force was introduced in an environmental transmission electron microscope (ETEM) for trapping a single submicron particle in high viscosity liquids. The critical voltages for trapping SiO₂ and TiO₂ spheres were determined to be 75 V and 25 V, respectively, due to their dielectric characteristics. As a result, although TiO₂ particles exhibited a similar size and morphology, they were able to be successfully separated from a mixed suspension of SiO₂ and TiO₂. Moreover, by applying a reasonable bias voltage to the electric tweezer and customizing the size and shape of the tweezer tip, individual 500, 750, and 1000 nm TiO₂ spheres could be easily trapped from the corresponding TiO₂ suspension. The displacements of atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers indicated that the forces to trapped a single particle gradually increased with the diameter of the particles. Additionally, the electric tweezer could precisely manipulate a single particle, and stack a specific structure on the top of the electric tweezer. When the electric tweezer was combined with an optical microscope, it could successfully transfer a 5 µm SiO₂ sphere to a HeLa cell. Precisely trapping and manipulating micron and submicron particles is the foundation for fabricating microdevices to achieve specific functions, and it also show great potential for use in biological applications.
- Electric tweezers,
- Single particle trapping,
- Precisely manipulation,
- In-situ TEM,
- Microdevices assembly
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