2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Exploring the impact of confinement and defects on surface charge of 2D materials with controlled van der Waals nanochannels fabrication.
| Project/Area Number |
21K20499
|
|---|
| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2021-08-30 – 2023-03-31
|
| Keywords | nanofluidics / surface charge / graphene / boron nitride / water transport |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Due to delays in the setup of the transfer station to fabricate the van der Waals channels, we could not yet fabricate any channels.
However, we have now setup the transfer station in a cleanroom and most of the required instruments for fabrication are now available and in place. The transfer station allows for 3D manipulation of 2D graphene and hexagonal boron nitride flakes, the stage can be heated and cooled down and it includes a vacuum sample holding area.
Concerning the measurement part, we have now received and prepare the Molecular Device Axopatch 200B for high precision current measurement (100 fA sensitivity).
We also finished the design of the fluidic cell that will allow to connect millimetric tubes to the membranes supporting the angstrom-scale channels. It consists of two PEEK plastic pieces with a precise shape which has the exact dimensions of the silicon wafer on which a Silicon Nitride window is formed. The channels are built on the silicon nitride window, and the silicon wafer is sandwiched between the two PEEK parts which are then held together by a threading fitted into another plastic piece. Two o-rings on each side of the silicon chip avoid leakage. We will soon fabricate the cell in order to be able to do measurements.
|
| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Due to difficulties with an order, receiving the transfer station to create van der waals heterostructures to build angstrom-scale channels was delayed.
|
| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In the future, we will finish to prepare the experimental setup for the measurements. This means that we will fabricate the fluidic cell that we have already designed, we will then create a faraday cage to enclose the experiments which will ensure the lowest noise level in the current measurements (to determine the surface charge inside van der Waals channels).
On the fabrication side, we will finish to prepare the setup for van der Waals channels fabrication and prepare the workflow. To this end we will use the electron beam lithography of Takeda Cleanroom for nanoscale patterning of the channels, and then do the transfer with our newly built transfer station.
We will then start to fabricate the defect controlled samples which will allow to investigate the influence of defects and confinement on the surface charge.
|
| Causes of Carryover |
During the next fiscal year, concerning the experiments the budget will be used for three main goals: (i) to complete the experimental setup for van der Waals channel fabrication, (ii) to finish to setup the current measurement experiment.
(iii) to cover part of the cleanroom costs required for the van der Waals channels fabrication. When we will obtain results, we will use part of the budget to publish and present ours results to make them more impactful.
|
