To improve the spatial resolution of solid-state nanopores, thinning the membrane is a very important issue. The most commonly used membrane material for solid-state nanopores is silicon nitride (Si3N4). However, until now, stable wafer-scale fabrication of Si3N4 membranes with a thickness of less than 5 nm has not been reported, although a further reduction in thickness is desired to improve s...

Integration of solid-state nanopores and multichannel detection of signals from each nanopore are effective measures for realizing high-throughput nanopore sensors. In the present study, we demonstrated fabrication of Si3N4 membrane arrays and the simultaneous measurement of ionic currents through two nanopores formed in two adjacent membranes. Membranes with thicknesses as low as 6.4 nm and sm...

Unlike biological protein pores in lipid membranes, nanopores fabricated in synthetic materials can withstand a wide range of environmental conditions including the presence of organic solvents. This capability expands the potential of synthetic nanopores to monitor chemical reactions occurring at the interface between solutions of organic and aqueous character. In this work, nanopores fabricat...

Solid-state nanopores are considered a promising tool for the study of biological polymers such as DNA and RNA, due largely to their flexibility in size, potential in device integration and robustness. Here, we show that the precise shape of small nanopores (approximately 5 nm diameter in 20 nm SiN membranes) can be controlled by using transmission electron microscope (TEM) beams of different s...

We report the preparation of 20 and 65 nm radii glass nanopores whose surface is modified with DNA aptamers controlling the molecular transport through the nanopores in response to small molecule binding.

To date, solid-state nanopores have been fabricated primarily through a focused-electronic beam via TEM. For mass production, however, a TEM beam is not suitable and an alternative fabrication method is required. Recently, a simple method for fabricating solid-state nanopores was reported by Kwok, H. et al. and used to fabricate a nanopore (down to 2 nm in size) in a membrane via dielectric bre...

The predictions of a theory for the anomalous mole fraction effect (AMFE) are tested experimentally with synthetic nanopores in plastic. The negatively charged synthetic nanopores under consideration are highly cation selective and 50 A in diameter at their smallest point. These pores exhibit an AMFE in mixtures of Ca(2+) and monovalent cations. An AMFE occurs when the conductance through a por...

A long-standing problem in the application of solid-state nanopores is the lack of the precise control over the geometry of artificially formed pores compared to the well-defined geometry in their biological counterpart, that is, protein nanopores. To date, experimentally investigated solid-state nanopores have been shown to adopt an approximately circular shape. In this Letter, we investigate ...

Phase behavior in shale remains a mystery because of various complexities and effects. One complexity is from nanopores, in which phase behavior is significantly affected by the interaction between the pore surfaces and fluid molecules. The result is the heterogeneous distribution of molecules that cannot be described by bulk-phase thermodynamic approaches. Statistical thermodynamic methods can...

Graphene nanopores are potential successors to biological and silicon-based nanopores. For sensing applications, it is however crucial to understand and block the strong nonspecific hydrophobic interactions between DNA and graphene. Here we demonstrate a novel scheme to prevent DNA-graphene interactions, based on a tailored self-assembled monolayer. For bare graphene, we encounter a paradox: wh...