The problem of coupled flexural-torsional nonlinear vibrations of a piezoelectrically-actuated microcantilever beam as a typical configuration utilized in microcantilever-based sensing is being investigated. The actuation and sensing are both facilitated through bonding a piezoelectric layer (here, ZnO) on the microcantilever surface. Considering different geometrical configurations for the bea...

Nowadays, atomic-force microscopy plays a significant role in nanoscience and nanotechnology, and is widely used for direct measurement at atomic scale and scanning the sample surfaces. In tapping mode, the microcantilever of atomic-force microscope is excited at resonance frequency. Therefore, it is important to study its resonance. Moreover, atomic-force microscopes can be operated in fluid e...

This paper proposes an approach for designing an efficient vibration energy harvester based on a vibro-impacting piezoelectric microcantilever with a geometric shape that has been rationally modified in accordance with results of dynamic optimization. The design goal is to increase the amplitudes of higher-order vibration modes induced during the vibro-impact response of the piezoelectric trans...

To control indoor air quality, a novel freon gas sensor of piezoelectric microcantilever coated with zeolite has been developed in this paper. Excited by an ac voltage, the microcantilever is employed to detect the concentration of sample freon-12 gas ranged from 0 to 100 ppm by the effect of the specific MFI zeolite modification. High selectivity and sensitivity combined with excellent repeata...

piezoelectric microcantilevers (mcs) are a new generation of microbeams used in atomic force microscopes (afms). due to their miniaturization of afms as well as their increased imaging precision and speed, these mcs are more popular than their classical counterparts. given the widespread application of these beams in nanoparticle topography, analysis of their vibrating motion has attracted much...

We report on the first successful operation of a cyclic contact scanning force microscope ~SFM! using a self-excited cantilever in liquid. Based on a new structure including a PZT reference pattern and a free-standing PZT cantilever, the piezoelectric self-excitation and self-detection mechanism for a PZT microcantilever was developed successfully. The topography is recorded by measuring the pi...

Piezoelectric microcantilever sensors (PEMS) can be sensitive tools for the detection of proteins and cells in biological fluids. However, currently available PEMS can only be used a single time or must be completely stripped and refunctionalized prior to subsequent uses. Here we report the successful use of an alternative regeneration protocol employing high salt concentrations to remove the t...

A rapid technique for quantitative detection and discrimination of DNA strands without using immobilized probe molecules is demonstrated using an opto-calorimetric, self-powered sensor based on a Pb(Zr(0.52)Ti(0.48))O3 (PZT) microcantilever. Microcalorimetric infrared (IR) spectroscopy provides excellent chemical selectivity based on the unique molecular vibrational characteristics of each nucl...