By Bhavna KavetiSep 8 2022Reviewed by Susha Cheriyedath, M.Sc. Nanopore-based techniques have a broad range of applications and are used extensively in industrial and academic research.
Nanopore Technology Nanopore technology involves nano-scale holes embedded in a thin membrane structure to detect the potential change when charged biological molecules smaller than nanopore pass through the hole. Therefore, nanopore technology has the potential to sense and analyze single-molecule amino acids, DNA, RNA, and many more.
Solid-state, biological and hybrid nanopores are three broad classes of nanopore techniques. While biological nanopores are inflexible towards tuning the shape and pore size, and lack mechanical and chemical stability, solid-state nanopores resolve these issues by increasing the electrical, chemical, and mechanical stabilities.
Although TEM was utilized to drill nanopores on various two-dimensional materials, this technique of nanopore fabrication comes with a few drawbacks. For example, there are sample size and geometric restrictions when fitting into the TEM sample holder and membrane damage due to the formation of pinholes. Thus, the viability of TEM for mass production of nanopores is still a primary concern.