Kinetics of nanopore fabrication during controlled breakdown of dielectric membranes in solution
Kinetics of nanopore fabrication during controlled breakdown of dielectric membranes in solution
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DOI：
10.1088/0957-4484/26/8/084004
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发表时间：
2015-02-27
期刊：
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Tabard-Cossa, Vincent
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Briggs, Kyle;Charron, Martin;Tabard-Cossa, Vincent
通过受控击穿（CBD）的纳米孔制造克服了传统纳米纤维技术的许多挑战，通过以低成本和可扩展的方式可靠地形成尺寸小于2nm的固态纳米孔用于核酸分析应用。在此，研究了浸入液体环境中的薄介电膜的击穿动力学，以便更深入地了解高电场形成固态纳米孔的机制。对于各种制造条件下，我们证明了纳米孔的制造时间是威布尔分布的，在支持的假设，即制造机制是一个随机过程，由形成一个连接的路径穿过膜的概率（即一个最弱的链接问题）。此外，我们探讨了各种离子和溶剂在击穿动力学中的作用，揭示了对于给定的电压极性，跨膜的不对称pH条件可以显着影响纳米孔的制造时间。这些结果表征了纳米孔制造过程的随机性并突出了影响它的参数，应该有助于有兴趣利用CBD用于纳米流体通道制造的潜力的研究人员，同时也为可能的基于固态纳米孔的技术的制造提供指导。
Nanopore fabrication by controlled breakdown (CBD) overcomes many of the challenges of traditional nanofabrication techniques, by reliably forming solid-state nanopores sub-2 nm in size in a low-cost and scalable way for nucleic acid analysis applications. Herein, the breakdown kinetics of thin dielectric membranes immersed in a liquid environment are investigated in order to gain deeper insights into the mechanism of solid-state nanopore formation by high electric fields. For various fabrication conditions, we demonstrate that nanopore fabrication time is Weibull-distributed, in support of the hypothesis that the fabrication mechanism is a stochastic process governed by the probability of forming a connected path across the membrane (i.e. a weakest-link problem). Additionally, we explore the roles that various ions and solvents play in breakdown kinetics, revealing that asymmetric pH conditions across the membrane can significantly affect nanopore fabrication time for a given voltage polarity. These results, characterizing the stochasticity of the nanopore fabrication process and highlighting the parameters affecting it, should assist researchers interested in exploiting the potential of CBD for nanofluidic channel fabrication, while also offering guidance towards the conceivable manufacturing of solid-state nanopore-based technologies for DNA sequencing applications.