Patent ID: 8066967

Claim:
A method for transporting nanofibers, comprising: freely suspending a plurality of electrochemically charged nanofibers in a liquid dielectric medium, the electrochemical charge being generated by a charge director composition in the liquid dielectric medium, wherein the liquid dielectric medium has a resistivity dependent on at least the a concentration of the charge director of between 10 9 and 1.25×10 11 ohm-cm, and an induced charge on the nanofibers is maintained absent contact with a conductor; inducing a charge on the plurality of nanofibers due to ohmic contact with a conductive surface; interposing a low leakage dielectric barrier between a conductive substrate and an electrode; subjecting the at least a portion of the freely suspended electrochemically charged and induction charged nanofibers in the dielectric medium to an electrical field between the electrode and the conductive substrate, through the dielectric barrier; and causing the at least a portion of the freely suspended electrochemically charged and induction charged nanofibers to migrate due to an electrostatic force based on at least the electrical field and a conductivity of the respective nanofibers, to a surface of the dielectric barrier, the dielectric barrier and dielectric medium being configured to prevent discharge of the charged nanofibers and thereby selectively cause an electrostatic accumulation on the dielectric barrier, and the conductive substrate being configured to discharge the induced charge on the electrochemically charged and induction charged nanofibers with an opposite polarity induced charge, by contact with the conductive substrate, to thereby selectively inhibit electrostatic accumulation of the nanofibers on a surface of the conductive substrate exposed to the liquid dielectric medium, wherein the nanofibers have an elongated axis, and wherein the electrical field affects an alignment of the elongated axes of the nanofibers, further comprising preserving the alignment of the elongated axes of the migrated nanofibers after removal of the electric field from the aligned nanofibers.