Electric moulding of dispersed lipid nanotubes into a nanofluidic device

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to assemble lipid nanotubes into a nanofluidic device using electric fields, enabling high-throughput chemical and biological applications with efficient transport and reaction of encapsulated objects.

Contribution

It introduces an off-chip electric moulding technique for assembling lipid nanotubes into parallel arrays, offering on-demand adjustability and potential for scalable nanofluidic devices.

Findings

Lipid nanotubes can be assembled into parallel arrays using AC electric fields.

The assembled LNT film can encapsulate and transport nanoparticles efficiently.

The method enables high-throughput nanofluidic applications with visualized capillary filling.

Abstract

Hydrophilic nanotubes formed by lipid molecules have potential applications as platforms for chemical or biological events occurring in an attolitre volume inside a hollow cylinder. Here, we have integrated the lipid nanotubes (LNTs) by applying an AC electric field via plug-in electrode needles placed above a substrate. The off-chip assembly method has the on-demand adjustability of an electrode configuration, enabling the dispersed LNT to be electrically moulded into a separate film of parallel LNT arrays in one-step. The fluorescence resonance energy transfer technique as well as the digital microscopy visualised the overall filling of gold nanoparticles up to the inner capacity of an LNT film by capillary action, thereby showing the potential of this flexible film for use as a high-throughput nanofluidic device where not only is the endo-signalling and product in each LNT multiplied but also the encapsulated objects are efficiently transported and reacted.