{"id":17219,"date":"2020-01-07T06:11:46","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T06:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=17219"},"modified":"2020-06-09T12:12:46","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T12:12:46","slug":"complete-filling-of-batches-of-nanopipettes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/complete-filling-of-batches-of-nanopipettes\/","title":{"rendered":"Complete filling of batches of nanopipettes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Asia Research News |<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nanopipettes, in which a nanoscale channel is filled with a solution, are used in all kinds of nanotechnology applications, including scanning-probe microscopy.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bringing a solution into a nanopipette with a pore diameter below 10 nanometer is challenging, however, since capillary forces prevent the complete filling of a sub-10-nm nanopipette pore with a liquid.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, Shinji Watanabe and colleagues from Kanazawa University have found a simple but efficient way for filling nanopipettes.\u00a0 The researchers show that the \u2018air bubble\u2019 that typically remains near the pipette\u2019s pore end can be removed by applying a temperature gradient along the pipette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scientists investigated their \u2018thermally-driven method\u2019 to a batch of 94 pipettes, aligned length-wise next to each other, all with a pore diameter of around 10 nm.\u00a0 The pipettes were put on a metal plate kept at a temperature of 80 \u00b0C, with their tips protruding from the plate, resulting in a temperature gradient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time-lapsed optical microscopy images of the filling process of the nanopipettes showed that after 1200 seconds, the tips are completely filled with solution, and that air bubbles are driven out of the pipettes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to double-check that the pipettes were indeed bubble-free, Watanabe and colleagues performed so-called I\u2013V measurements.\u00a0 Every pipette was filled with a solution of potassium chloride (KCl), which is conducting.\u00a0 Both pipette ends were then contacted with electrodes.\u00a0 If an electrical current runs between the ends \u2014 specifically, if the pipette has an electrical conductivity below a few G\u03a9\u2014 then filling with the solution is complete.\u00a0 The resesarchers observed electrical currents and therefore filling for the whole batch of pipettes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scientists also performed transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurments of pipettes with pore diameters below 10 nm.\u00a0 Although the thermally-driven method leads to good electrical contacts, particle-like structures were observed inside the tips of the nanopipettes, demonstrating that (quoting the researchers) \u201cTEM observation without inducing pipette deformation\u00a0 is important for accurately determining the characteristics of sub-10-nm nanopipettes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watanabe and colleagues concluded that their method is very practical and easy to introduce in nanopipette frabrication and that their study \u201cwill provide a significant contribution to various fields of nanoscience using nanopipettes.<\/p>\n
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By Asia Research News | Nanopipettes, in which a nanoscale channel is filled with a solution, are used in all kinds of nanotechnology applications, including scanning-probe microscopy.\u00a0 Bringing a solution into a nanopipette with a pore diameter below 10 nanometer is challenging, however, since capillary forces prevent the complete filling of a sub-10-nm nanopipette pore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes.jpg",1140,1318,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes-200x200.jpg",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes-259x300.jpg",259,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes-768x888.jpg",750,867,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes-886x1024.jpg",750,867,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes.jpg",1140,1318,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes.jpg",1140,1318,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes.jpg",692,800,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes.jpg",493,570,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes.jpg",600,694,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes.jpg",519,600,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes-760x490.jpg",760,490,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes-550x360.jpg",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes-95x65.jpg",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes.jpg",640,740,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes.jpg",83,96,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/nano-pipes.jpg",150,173,false]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}