Bidhan Pramanick

This book provides an introduction to the state-of-the art in C-MEMS/C-NEMS with an emphasis on lithographically patterned photo-polymers, carbonized in an inert atmosphere. We can expand our perspective considerably by learning from the traditional carbon manufacturing community where researchers deal with a much wider variety of carbon feed stocks such as coal, coconut shell, wood, agricultural wastes, and industrial wastes to make all types of useful carbons. The new concepts are introduced by discussing carbon nanomaterials synthesis aided with catalysts and chemistry and detailing the microstructure of the resulting nanocarbons.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) spectroscopies are well-known characterization techniques that reveal the molecular details of a sample non-invasively. The authors discuss how NMR can provide useful information on the microstructure of carbon and its surface properties and explain how C-MEMS/C-NEMS technology can be explored for building improved NMR microdevices.The authors highlight the manipulation of fluids and particles by dielectrophoresis and the use of carbon electrodes for dielectrophoresis in Lab-on-a-Chip.The use of these electrodes in sample preparation through electrical polarization of a sample for identification, manipulation, and lysis of bioparticles is also discussed and they introduce a new generation of neural prosthetics based on glassy carbon micromachined electrode arrays. The tuning of the electrical, electrochemical and mechanical properties of these patternable electrodes for applications in bio-electrical signal recording and stimulation, and results from in-vivo testing of these glassy carbon microelectrode arrays is reported, demonstrating a quantifiable superior performance compared to metal electrodes.