Thermally Driven Approach To Fill Sub-10-nm Pipettes with Batch Production

What is it about?

Here, we introduce a thermally driven approach to filling sub-10-nm pipettes with batch production, regardless of their shape. A temperature gradient is applied to transport water vapor from the backside of nanopipettes to the tip region until bubbles are completely removed from this region. The electrical contact and pore size for filling nanopipettes are confirmed by current–voltage and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements, respectively. In addition, we quantitatively compare the pore size between the TEM characterization and estimation on the basis of pore radius and conductance.

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Why is it important?

Nanopipettes have been widely utilized in modern nanoscience and nanotechnology applications, such as molecular sensing, chemical delivery, and scanning probe microscopy. Typically, utilization of small nanopipettes results in either high sensitivity or spatial resolution in modern nanoscience and nanotechnology. However, filling a nanopipette with a sub-10-nm pore diameter remains a significant challenge.

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