Micro and Nano Fluidics:

Cellular Probes and Nanopipettes

We have developed a process that allows us to fabricate integrated carbon nanopipettes with diameters ranging from tens of nanometers to hundreds of nanometers.  These nanopipettes have excellent mechanical properties. They can bend without breaking and recover their original position once the force has been removed.  The probes are stiff enough to penetrate through the cell membrane without causing any damage to the cell and with good spatial resolutions.  Since the carbon pipettes are conductive, they can double as nanoelectrodes.  Although the nanopipettes were initially developed for cell probing, they have found a variety of applications such as electrochemical sensors with high sensitivity and sample holders for electron microscopy – taking advantage of the fact that the carbon walls of the pipe are transparent to electrons.

PUBLICATIONS

• Kim, B. M, Murray, T., and Bau, H. H., 2005, The Fabrication of Integrated Carbon Pipes with Sub Micron Diameters, Nanotechnology, 16, 1317-1320.