Abstract

Colloidal particles provide the ideal building blocks for the next generation of microdevices, such as advanced sensors and precision drug delivery systems. However, many such applications require the use of top-down (i.e. humanly controllable) forces to manipulate colloidal particles with single-particle precision, and current methods can only achieve such precision for small numbers of particles at a time. To address this challenge, we propose using chemical forces in combination with existing top-down techniques to enable the control of larger numbers of particles simultaneously. Controlling colloids using chemical reactions is a novel technique not typically utilized. Due to its distinct difference from other control methods, it provides new degrees of freedom to work with which offer new opportunities for designing colloidal devices. In this dissertation, we show how modern control theory can be used to implement the control of colloidal particles using chemical forces. We use Brownian dynamics simulations to test control strategies for three different situations: directly controlling chemical reactions to produce a desired concentration gradient, controlling a reactive colloidal particle that interacts chemically with other colloids to move them to desired locations, and controlling the dynamics of active colloidal particles to manipulate their collective behavior. The results obtained in this work will demonstrate the plausibility of each of these three control strategies and provide insights into the choices of physical parameters that can be used in future experiments.

Degree

PhD

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering; Chemical Engineering

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/