The electro rheological behavior of the hollow polyaniline pimelate suspension in silicone oil was investigated. Hollow polyaniline pimelate suspension showed a typical ER response (Bingham flow behavior) upon application of an electric field. The shear stress for the suspension exhibited the dependence with a factor equals to 0.84 power on the electric field. The experimental results for the hollow polyaniline pimelate suspension correlated with the conduction models of Tang et al., and this suspension behaved as an ER fluid.

The main principle of two widely used methods which were proposed by Ruan and Bhushan, and by Ogletree and Carpick are introduced. Experiments were conducted using the two methods to measure friction force between AFM probe and silicon sample quantitatively. To characterize the frictional properties, the conversion factors of the two methods by which lateral electronic signal is converted into actual friction force were calculated. The experimental results show that that the conversion factors were extraordinarily different from each other. Further research should be done to identity the reasons for these differences.

In this work, imaging and study of elastic property of the living cell was performed. The motivation of this work was to seek the possibility of exploiting Young's modulus as a disease indicator using Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and also to gain fundamental understanding of cell mechanics for applications in medical nanorobots of the future. L-929 fibroblast adherent cell was used as the sample. Imaging condition in cell culturing media environment was done in very low speed ($20{\mu}m/ s$) compared to that in the ambient environment. For measuring the Young's modulus of the living cell, AFM indentation method was used. From the force-distance curve obtained from the indentation experiment the Young's modulus could be derived using the Hertz model. The Young's modulus of living L-929 fibroblast cell was $1.29{\pm}0.2$ kPa.

In this paper, we report on the replication of surface topography of natural leaf of Lotus onto thin polymeric films using a capillarity-directed soft lithographic technique. PDMS molds were used to replicate the surface. The replication was carried out on poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) film coated on silicon wafer. The patterns so obtained were investigated for their friction properties at micro-scale using a ball-on-flat type micro-tribo tester, under reciprocating motion. Soda lime balls (1 mm diameter) were used as counterface sliders. Friction tests were conducted at a constant applied normal load of $3000{\mu}N$ and speed of 1mm/s. All experiments were conducted at ambient temperature ($24{\pm}1^{\circ}C$) and relative humidity ($45{\pm}5%$). Results showed that the patterned samples exhibited superior tribological properties when compared to the silicon wafer and non patterned sample (PMMA thin film). The reduced real area of contact projected by the surfaces was the main reason for their enhanced friction property.

The electrorheology of hollow PANI derivative suspensions in silicone oil was investigated by varying the electric fields and shear rates, respectively. The hollow PANI derivative susepnsions showed a typical electrorheological (ER) response caused by the polarizability of an amide polar group and shear yield stress due to the formation of chains upon application of an electric field. The shear stress for the hollow PANI succinate suspension exhibited an electric field power of 0.67. On the basis of the experimental results, the newly synthesized hollow PANI derivative suspensions were found to be an anhydrous ER fluid.

A simple finite element analysis is performed to simulate the thermal characteristics of a micro sensor package with thin film heater embedded in the glass wall of a micro-channel. In this paper, Electric characteristics of ITO sputtered heater were presented in this study, which can be used as a map of heater design in the range of available system temperature. The effects of thermo-physical properties of materials, geometrical structure and boundary condition on the thermal performance are also investigated. Finally, the design of micro-flow induced thermal sensor that is capable of measuring fluid flow with a lower flow detection limit of approximately 24pL/s is presented.