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Nature 445, 726 (15 February 2007) | doi:10.1038/445726a; Published online 14 February 2007

Nanofluidics: Silicon for the perfect membrane

Albert van den Berg1 & Matthias Wessling1

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Newly developed ultrathin silicon membranes can filter and separate molecules much more effectively than conventional polymer membranes. Many applications, of economic and medical significance, stand to benefit.

On page 749 of this issue, Striemer et al.1 describe a method for preparing ultrathin nanoporous membranes made from silicon. Nanoporous membranes are already widely used in medicine, for instance for the filtration and separation of blood proteins in an artificial kidney (haemodialysis) — a rapidly growing world market currently worth more than US$1 billion annually.

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