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A Method for Reproducibly Preparing Synthetic Nanopores for Resistive‐Pulse Biosensors
Author(s) -
Wharton John E.,
Jin Pu,
Sexton Lindsay T.,
Horne Lloyd P.,
Sherrill Stefanie A.,
Mino Warren K.,
Martin Charles R.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.200700106
Subject(s) - nanopore , resistive touchscreen , biosensor , nanotechnology , analyte , materials science , fabrication , computer science , chemistry , chromatography , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , computer vision
There is increasing interest in using nanopores in synthetic membranes as resistive‐pulse sensors for biomedical analytes. Analytes detected with prototype artificial‐nanopore biosensors include drugs, DNA, proteins, and viruses. This field is, however, currently in its infancy. A key question that must be addressed in order for such sensors to progress from an interesting laboratory experiment to practical devices is: Can the artificial‐nanopore sensing element be reproducibly prepared? We have been evaluating sensors that employ a conically shaped nanopore prepared by the track‐etch method as the sensor element. We describe here a new two‐step pore‐etching procedure that allows for good reproducibility in nanopore fabrication. In addition, we describe a simple mathematical model that allows us to predict the characteristics of the pore produced given the experimental parameters of the two‐step etch. This method and model constitute important steps toward developing practical, real‐world, artificial‐nanopore biosensors.