Fabrication of functional silicon-based nanoporous membranes

Abstract

Macroscopic porous membranes with pore diameter uniformity approaching the nanometer scale have great potential to significantly increase the speed, selectivity, and efficiency of molecular separations. We present fabrication, characterization, and molecular transport evaluation of nanoporous thin silicon-based sieves created by laser interferometric lithography ({LIL).} This fabrication approach is ideally suited for the integration of nanostructured pore arrays into larger microfluidic processing systems, using a simple all-silicon lithographic process. Submilli-meter-scale planar arrays of uniform cylindrical and pyramidal nanopores are created in silicon nitride and silicon, respectively, with average pore diameters below 250 nm and significantly smaller standard error than commercial polycarbonate track etched ({PCTE)} membranes. Molecular transport properties of short cylindrical pores fabricated by {LIL} are compared to those of thicker commercial {PCTE} membranes for the first time. A 10-fold increase in pyridine pore flux is achieved with thin membranes relative to commercial sieves, without any modification of the membrane surface.