Pressure-dependent electrolytic conduction of track-etched single conical nanopore

• Published in: Applied surface science 2015-10, Vol.353, p.574-579
• Main Authors: Zhu, X.R., Wang, L., Wang, C.M., Jiao, Z., Wang, W.D., Qin, G.Y., Xue, J.M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anions; Cations; Disruption; Ion current; Nanopore; Nanostructure; Polyimide resins; Porosity; Pressure; Rectification; Stress concentration; Track-etched
• ISSN: 0169-4332; 1873-5584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2015.06.116

•Ion current rectification is a main characteristic of conical-shaped nanopores and related to concentration, pH of electrolyte, and so on.•In our study, we used conical-shaped Kapton nanopores to research the dependence of the ion current rectification on the pressure applied across the nanopore.•It demonstrates that ion current rectification is dependent on pressure and the pore orifice size. In this paper, a systematic investigation of the influence of pressure on electrolytic conduction of conical nanopores in track-etched polyimide (Kapton) films is described. The effect of pressure is shown to be dependent on the pore orifice size and the rectification ratio of nanopore. For larger Kapton nanopores, the disruption of cation and anion equilibrium distributions within the nanopore caused by pressure resulted in the decrease of the rectification, but the pressure effect on the I–V also exhibited some differences for larger nanopores with different diameter. For smaller nanopores, pressure had a negligible influence on rectification.