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Liquid glass electrodes for nanofluidics

Nature Nanotechnology volume 5, pages 412–416 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Nanofluidic devices make use of molecular-level forces and phenomena to increase their density, speed and accuracy1. However, fabrication is challenging, because dissimilar materials need to be integrated in three dimensions with nanoscale precision. Here, we report a three-dimensional nanoscale liquid glass electrode made from monolithic substrates without conductive materials by femtosecond-laser nanomachining. The electrode consists of a nanochannel terminating at a nanoscale glass tip that becomes a conductor in the presence of high electric fields through dielectric breakdown, and returns to being an insulator when this field is removed. This reversibility relies on control of nanoampere breakdown currents and extremely fast heat dissipation at nanoscale volumes. We use the nanoscale liquid glass electrode to fabricate a nano-injector that includes an electrokinetic pump, 4 µm across with 0.6 µm channels, which is capable of producing well-controlled flow rates below 1 fl s−1. The electrode can be integrated easily into other nanodevices and fluidic systems, including actuators and sensors.

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Figure 1: Reversible dielectric breakdown across a thin glass wall separating two channels (that is, an NLGE).
Figure 2: Simulation results with electric potentials ranging from 10 to 160 V.
Figure 3: Prototype nano-injector driven by a single NLGE EK pump.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to S. Yalisove and Kwan Hyoung Kang for useful discussions. We thank Intralase Corp. for the laser. This work was supported by NIH R21 EB006098.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, POSTECH, Pohang, 790-784, South Korea

    Sanghyun Lee

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109, Michigan, USA

    Ran An

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109, Michigan, USA

    Alan J. Hunt

Authors
  1. Sanghyun Lee
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  2. Ran An
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  3. Alan J. Hunt
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Contributions

S.L. discovered the phenomena and the governing mechanism. S.L. conceived and designed the experiments. S.L. performed all the experiments except the I–V measurements in fused silica substrates, which were carried out by R.A. S.L. performed the numerical simulation and analysed the simulation results. S.L. developed the nano-injector and analysed the performance. S.L. and A.J.H. developed the breakdown model, discussed the results, and co-wrote the paper. A.J.H. guided the overall thrust and direction of this research.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Sanghyun Lee or Alan J. Hunt.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Lee, S., An, R. & Hunt, A. Liquid glass electrodes for nanofluidics. Nature Nanotech 5, 412–416 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.81

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