Cargando…

MEMS Membranes with Nanoscale Holes for Analytical Applications

Micro-electro-mechanical membranes having nanoscale holes were developed, to be used as a nanofluidic sample inlet in novel analytical applications. Nanoscopic holes can be used as sampling points to enable a molecular flow regime, enhancing the performance and simplifying the layout of mass spectro...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bagolini, Alvise, Correale, Raffaele, Picciotto, Antonino, Di Lorenzo, Maurizio, Scapinello, Marco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7909423/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33498406
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes11020074
_version_ 1783655928120213504
author Bagolini, Alvise
Correale, Raffaele
Picciotto, Antonino
Di Lorenzo, Maurizio
Scapinello, Marco
author_facet Bagolini, Alvise
Correale, Raffaele
Picciotto, Antonino
Di Lorenzo, Maurizio
Scapinello, Marco
author_sort Bagolini, Alvise
collection PubMed
description Micro-electro-mechanical membranes having nanoscale holes were developed, to be used as a nanofluidic sample inlet in novel analytical applications. Nanoscopic holes can be used as sampling points to enable a molecular flow regime, enhancing the performance and simplifying the layout of mass spectrometers and other analytical systems. To do this, the holes must be placed on membranes capable of consistently withstanding a pressure gradient of 1 bar. To achieve this goal, a membrane-in-membrane structure was adopted, where a larger and thicker membrane is microfabricated, and smaller sub-membranes are then realized in it. The nanoscopic holes are opened in the sub-membranes. Prototype devices were fabricated, having hole diameters from 300 to 600 nm, a membrane side of 80 μm, and a simulated maximum displacement of less than 150 nm under a 1 bar pressure gradient. The obtained prototypes were tested in a dedicated vacuum system, and a method to calculate the effective orifice diameter using gas flow measurements at different pressure gradients was implemented. The calculated diameters were in good agreement with the target diameter sizes. Micro-electro-mechanical technology was successfully used to develop a novel micromembrane with nanoscopic holes, and the fabricated prototypes were successfully used as a gas inlet in a vacuum system for mass spectrometry and other analytical systems.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7909423
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-79094232021-02-27 MEMS Membranes with Nanoscale Holes for Analytical Applications Bagolini, Alvise Correale, Raffaele Picciotto, Antonino Di Lorenzo, Maurizio Scapinello, Marco Membranes (Basel) Article Micro-electro-mechanical membranes having nanoscale holes were developed, to be used as a nanofluidic sample inlet in novel analytical applications. Nanoscopic holes can be used as sampling points to enable a molecular flow regime, enhancing the performance and simplifying the layout of mass spectrometers and other analytical systems. To do this, the holes must be placed on membranes capable of consistently withstanding a pressure gradient of 1 bar. To achieve this goal, a membrane-in-membrane structure was adopted, where a larger and thicker membrane is microfabricated, and smaller sub-membranes are then realized in it. The nanoscopic holes are opened in the sub-membranes. Prototype devices were fabricated, having hole diameters from 300 to 600 nm, a membrane side of 80 μm, and a simulated maximum displacement of less than 150 nm under a 1 bar pressure gradient. The obtained prototypes were tested in a dedicated vacuum system, and a method to calculate the effective orifice diameter using gas flow measurements at different pressure gradients was implemented. The calculated diameters were in good agreement with the target diameter sizes. Micro-electro-mechanical technology was successfully used to develop a novel micromembrane with nanoscopic holes, and the fabricated prototypes were successfully used as a gas inlet in a vacuum system for mass spectrometry and other analytical systems. MDPI 2021-01-20 /pmc/articles/PMC7909423/ /pubmed/33498406 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes11020074 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bagolini, Alvise
Correale, Raffaele
Picciotto, Antonino
Di Lorenzo, Maurizio
Scapinello, Marco
MEMS Membranes with Nanoscale Holes for Analytical Applications
title MEMS Membranes with Nanoscale Holes for Analytical Applications
title_full MEMS Membranes with Nanoscale Holes for Analytical Applications
title_fullStr MEMS Membranes with Nanoscale Holes for Analytical Applications
title_full_unstemmed MEMS Membranes with Nanoscale Holes for Analytical Applications
title_short MEMS Membranes with Nanoscale Holes for Analytical Applications
title_sort mems membranes with nanoscale holes for analytical applications
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7909423/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33498406
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes11020074
work_keys_str_mv AT bagolinialvise memsmembraneswithnanoscaleholesforanalyticalapplications
AT correaleraffaele memsmembraneswithnanoscaleholesforanalyticalapplications
AT picciottoantonino memsmembraneswithnanoscaleholesforanalyticalapplications
AT dilorenzomaurizio memsmembraneswithnanoscaleholesforanalyticalapplications
AT scapinellomarco memsmembraneswithnanoscaleholesforanalyticalapplications