Delivery of Single Nanoparticles from Nanopipettes under Resistive‐Pulse Control

Abstract

In this communication we show that the resistive‐pulse setup can be employed to control the delivery of single nanoparticles from a nanopipette. The precise pipette positioning for local delivery of nanoparticles can be attained by using it as a scanning ion‐conductance microscopy (SICM) tip. Experimental SICM approach curves fit the developed theory well.

Resistive-pulse and rectification sensing with glass and carbon nanopipettes

“…NPs, vesicles and large biomolecules) can be controlled by monitoring the resistive-pulse signal to count the dispensed species ( figure 1c). Thus, the delivery of single NPs from nanopipettes to external solution was demonstrated [79]. By using a pipette with a suitable aperture radius, current pulses with the amplitude much larger than the noise level were obtained for the ejection of 10 nm AuNPs as well as much larger AuNP-mAb-VEGF-C particles.…”

Nanopore Sensing

“…Incorporation of SICM with this miniaturized delivery system allowed localized delivery of single particles. 235 Moreover, the use of nanopipettes to directly sample native cellular environments and then evaluate local distribution of biomolecules such as mRNA, DNA, and lipids has been reported. 236–238 …”

Counting and Sizing of Single Vesicles/Liposomes by Electrochemical Events

“…In 1953, Wallace H. Coulter [27] invented the Coulter counter technique, achieving the detection of certain micron-sized entities (e. g., cells and bacteria). In addition to the developments in nanometre-scale fabrication technology, various biological, solidstate nanopore and/or nanochannel resistive-pulse sensors have emerged and grown to be a powerful and influential technique for single-entity analysis both in fundamental studies and in practical applications, [14,[30][31][32] achieving the successful detection of hard particles, [33,34] emulsions, [35] microgels [36][37][38] and biological entities. In addition to the developments in nanometre-scale fabrication technology, various biological, solidstate nanopore and/or nanochannel resistive-pulse sensors have emerged and grown to be a powerful and influential technique for single-entity analysis both in fundamental studies and in practical applications, [14,[30][31][32] achieving the successful detection of hard particles, [33,34] emulsions, [35] microgels [36][37][38] and biological entities.…”