Premium
Pneumatically Controlled Nanofluidic Devices for Contact‐Free Trapping and Manipulation of Nanoparticles
Author(s) -
Gerspach Michael Adrian,
Mojarad Nassir,
Sharma Deepika,
Ekinci Yasin,
Pfohl Thomas
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
particle and particle systems characterization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.877
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1521-4117
pISSN - 0934-0866
DOI - 10.1002/ppsc.201800161
Subject(s) - polydimethylsiloxane , soft lithography , trapping , nanotechnology , nanofluidics , materials science , nanoparticle , replica , fabrication , trap (plumbing) , lithography , microfluidics , optical tweezers , optoelectronics , optics , medicine , art , ecology , alternative medicine , physics , pathology , environmental engineering , engineering , visual arts , biology
Contact‐free trapping and manipulation of individual nano‐objects in solution are of great scientific interest and remain one of the challenges in nanofluidics. Geometry‐induced electrostatic (GIE) trapping is one powerful method that enables stable trapping of charged nano‐objects smaller than 100 nm without the need of externally applied fields. However, due to the absence of external control, there is a lack of the function to actively control and manipulate the trapped objects. Here, novel trapping devices are fabricated from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)‐based soft lithography replica molding, which simplifies fabrication and results in high‐throughput and low cost production. The development and implementation of a pneumatic system is described that makes the PDMS‐based GIE trapping devices capable of controlling the height of the nanofluidic channels. This setup enables fast and flexible tuning of the potential depth and trap stiffness as well as active trapping and release of the nanoparticles during the experiment, paving the way toward high‐throughput manipulation of nanoparticles.