A 30 nm Nanopore Electrode: Facile Fabrication and Direct Insights into the Intrinsic Feature of Single Nanoparticle Collisions

Clarifying the hidden but intrinsic feature of single nanoparticles by nanoelectrochemistry could help understand its potential for diverse applications. The uncontrolled interface and bandwidth limitation in the electrochemical measurement put the obstacle in single particle collision. Here, we demonstrate a well-defined 30 nm nanopore electrode with a rapid chemical-electrochemical fabrication method which provides a high reproducibility in both size and performance. A capacitance-based detection mechanism is demonstrated to achieve a high current resolution of 0.6 pA +/- 0.1 pA (RMS) and a high the temporal resolution of 0.01 ms. By utilizing this electrode, the dynamic interactions of every single particle in the mixture could be directly read during the collision process. The collision frequency is two orders of magnitude higher than previous reports, which helps reveal the hidden features of nanoparticles during the complex and multidimensional interaction processes.