Method of fabricating a two dimensional membrane with periodic nanopores
Provided herein are methods for creating or fabricating nanopore(s) on a membrane. The membrane is bombarded by ions, for example, C60 ions through at least one nanotunnel through a mask that is positioned on the membrane. Also provided is a two dimensional membrane with at least one nanopore thereon fabricated via these methods.
1. A method for creating at least one nanopore on a membrane, comprising:
fabricating a mask with at least one nanotunnel therethrough;
placing the mask over the membrane that has one to five monolayer;
adjusting a bombardment energy of charged C60 molecules and adjusting an incident angle of bombardment thereof to 5 degrees to less than 20 degrees away from a nanotunnel axis, an adjusted bombardment energy and an adjusted incident angle determined by a number of the monolayers, to control a size of the at least one nanopore;
bombarding the mask with the charged C60 molecules at the adjusted bombardment energy and the adjusted incident angle such that one C60 molecule enters one nanotunnel, each of said C60 molecules colliding with an inner wall of the nanotunnel at least once whereby said adjusted bombardment energy and adjusted incident angle prevent crushing or deforming of the C60 molecule; and
bombarding the membrane with each of the charged C60 molecules after passing through the at least one nanotunnel, to create the at least one nanopore thereon.
2. The method of claim 1 , said fabricating step comprising:
forming at least one convex on a mold;
molding the mold onto a substrate; and
anodizing at each convex to form the at least one nanotunnel.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the mold comprises silicon carbide, boron nitride, diamond, stainless steel, glass, a metallic glass, quartz, alumina, or silica.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanotunnels are fabricated in a random pattern or as an array.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bombardment energy ranges from about 100 eV to about 10 MeV.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the membrane is a graphene membrane or a molybdenum disulfide membrane.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanotunnel has a width of about 0.1 nm to about 1 micron.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mask has a thickness of about 1 nm to about 1 mm.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanotunnel has an aspect ratio of about 1 to about 10000.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the nanotunnel has an aspect ratio of about 150.
11. A two dimensional membrane with at least one nanopore thereon fabricated via the method of claim 1 .
12. The two dimensional membrane of claim 11 , wherein the nanopores are fabricated in a random pattern or as an array on the two dimensional membrane or wherein the two dimensional membrane is fabricated with a single nanopore.
13. The two dimensional membrane of claim 11 , wherein the membrane is selected from the group consisting of a single layer graphene membrane, a bilayer graphene membrane and a bilayer molybdenum disulfide membrane.