Analysis of nanoscale mechanical grasping under ambient conditions

In this paper, in order to understand mechanical grasping at the nanoscale, contact mechanics between nanogrippers and nanoobjects is studied. Contact models are introduced to simulate elastic contacts between various profiles of a flat surface, sphere and cylinder for different types of nanoobjects and nanogrippers. Analyses and evaluation instances indicate that friction forces, commonly used in macro-grasping to overcome gravity, at the nanoscale are often insufficient to overcome the relatively strong adhesion forces when picking up the nanoobject deposited on a substrate due to the tiny contact area. For stable nanoscale grasping, nonparallel two-finger grippers with a ‘V’ configuration are demonstrated to have better grasping capabilities than parallel grippers. To achieve mechanical nanoscale grasping, a nanogripper constructed from two microcantilevers is presented. Experimental results for the pick-and-place manipulation of silicon nanowires validate the theoretical analyses and capabilities of the proposed nanogripper. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)