Fabrication of multilayered nanofluidic membranes through silicon templates

We present a new fabrication method for solid-state nanoporous membranes based on sacrificial template structures made of silicon. The process consists of creating membranes by evaporating thin-films on sacrificial templates which, after their selective removal, opens the nanopores and releases the free-standing membranes. This way it is possible to define the geometry of the pore by design and to build the membrane by stacking thin-films of various materials through evaporation. Such a membrane with controlled porosity, pore geometry, thickness and nano-channel composition provides new opportunities for selective chemical functionalization, gating, electrical sensing or electrical stimulation inside the nanopore.