Conductivity-based detection techniques in nanofluidic devices

Abstract

This review covers conductivity detection in fabricated nanochannels and nanopores. Improvements in nanoscale sensing are a direct result of advances in fabrication techniques, which produce devices with channels and pores with reproducible dimensions and in a variety of materials. Analytes of interest are detected by measuring changes in conductance as the analyte accumulates in the channel or passes transiently through the pore. These detection methods take advantage of phenomena enhanced at the nanoscale, such as ion current rectification, surface conductance, and dimensions comparable to the analytes of interest. The end result is the development of sensing technologies for a broad range of analytes, e.g., ions, small molecules, proteins, nucleic acids, and particles.