Investigation of Nanopore Evolution in Track-Etched Poly(vinylidene fluoride) Membranes

Abstract

We investigated the formation of track-etched membranes of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), a type of fluoropolymer, in detail, using conductometry. A 25 µm-thick PVDF film was irradiated with a 450 MeV 129 Xe or 2.2 GeV 197 Au ion beam, and then the latent tracks were etched in a 9 mol dm -3 aqueous potassium hydroxide solution at 80ºC in a conductometric cell. This paper focuses on the theoretical basis of the conductometric method and the apparatus used in our study. Representative results are then given in terms of how the etching kinetics was affected by various experimental conditions including the irradiation parameters and cell voltages applied between the electrodes.

Improvement of Sensitivity and Speed of Virus Sensing Technologies Using nm- and μm-Scale Components

“…For example, it has been reported that the fabrication of pores in glass with sub-micrometer diameter uses a femtosecond-pulsed laser [ 126 , 130 ] to measure paramecium bursaria chlorella virus 1 with a diameter of 175–190 nm [ 131 , 132 ]. Other reports have also shown the use of a single heavy ion to fabricate pores [ 125 , 133 , 134 ], while in another method, a needle is used to penetrate a membrane [ 135 ]. This method is used for pore preparation, sold as a pore membrane for qNano and Exoid by Izon Science, and is a necessary process for tunable resistive pulse sensing (TRPS) (The details of TRPS are discussed below).…”