Thomas R. Gaborski

TL;DR: The development of an ultrathin porous nanocrystalline silicon (pnc-Si) membrane is reported using straightforward silicon fabrication techniques that provide control over average pore sizes from approximately 5 nm to 25’nm, expected to enable a variety of new devices, including membrane-based chromatography systems and both analytical and preparative microfluidic systems that require highly efficient separations.

TL;DR: It is shown that pnc-Si membranes can be used in dead-end filtration to fractionate gold nanoparticles and protein size ladders with better than 5 nm resolution, insignificant sample loss, and little dilution of the filtrate.

TL;DR: In this paper, a process for forming a porous nanoscale membrane is described, which involves applying a film to one side of a substrate, masking an opposite side of the substrate; etching the substrate, beginning from the masked opposite side and continuing until a passage is formed through the substrate and then exposing the film on both sides thereof to form a membrane; and then simultaneously forming a plurality of randomly spaced pores in the membrane.

TL;DR: How the structural, mechanical, chemical, and even the optical and transport properties of different membranes bestow specific advantages and disadvantages through the context of physiological relevance is discussed.

TL;DR: Pnc-Si membranes should find use in the study of molecular transport through cell monolayers, in studies of cell-cell communication, and as biodegradable scaffolds for three-dimensional tissue constructs.