Nanofluidic Traps by Two-Photon Fabrication for Extended Detection of Macromolecules and Colloids in Solution
Authors
Vanderpoorten, Oliver
Babar, Ali N
Jacquat, Raphael PB
Challa, Pavan K
Xu, Catherine K
Keyser, Ulrich F
Baumberg, Jeremy J
Kaminski, Clemens F
Knowles, Tuomas PJ
Publication Date
2022Journal Title
ACS APPLIED NANO MATERIALS
ISSN
2574-0970
Publisher
ACS
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Vanderpoorten, O., Babar, A. N., Krainer, G., Jacquat, R. P., Challa, P. K., Peter, Q., Toprakcioglu, Z., et al. (2022). Nanofluidic Traps by Two-Photon Fabrication for Extended Detection of Macromolecules and Colloids in Solution. ACS APPLIED NANO MATERIALS https://doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.1c03691
Abstract
The analysis of nanoscopic species, such as proteins and colloidal assemblies, at the single-molecule level has become vital in many areas of fundamental and applied research. Approaches to increase the detection timescales for single molecules in solution without immobilising them onto a substrate surface and applying external fields are much sought after. Here we present an easy-to-implement and versatile nanofluidics-based approach that enables increased observational-timescale analysis of single biomacromolecules and nanoscale colloids in solution. We use two-photon-based hybrid lithography in conjunction with soft lithography to fabricate nanofluidic devices with nano-trapping geometries down to 100 nm in height. We provide a rigorous description and characterisation of the fabrication route that enables the writing of nanoscopic 3D structures directly in photoresist and allows for the integration of nano-trapping and nano-channel geometries within micro-channel devices. Using confocal fluorescence burst detection, we validated the functionality of particle confinement in our nano-trap geometries through measurement of particle residence times. All species under study, including nanoscale colloids, α-synuclein oligomers, and double-stranded DNA, showed a three to five-fold increase in average residence time in the detection volume of nano-traps, due to the additional local steric confinement, in comparison to free space diffusion in a nearby micro-channel. Our approach thus opens-up the possibility for single-molecule studies at prolonged observational timescales to analyse and detect nanoparticles and protein assemblies in solution without the need for surface immobilisation.
Sponsorship
Horizon 2020 programme (766972-FET-OPEN-NANOPHLOW); EPSRC EP/L015889/1; Horizon 2020 Framework Programme through the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant MicroSPARK (agreement n◦ 841466;, the Herchel Smith Funds, and the Wolfson College Junior Research Fellowship
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.1c03691
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/332106
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