A simple chemical method to nondestructively regenerate functional nanochannels for single-molecule studies

Abstract

Nanofluidic devices possess enormous potential for single-molecule studies, providing profound insights into molecular phenomena and promising advancements in the development of single-molecule sensors, processors, and computation. Despite the high-cost of materials and complicated, time-consuming fabrication processes, nanofluidic devices often permit only a single use due to a lack of regeneration methods. This issue become even more critical and challenging when nanofluidic devices are employed in single-molecule studies, where complete regeneration is typically required to avoid false signals from ultratrace contaminants in the nanochannels. In this study, a simple chemical method was developed to enable high-performance, nondestructive regeneration of functional nanochannels for single-molecule studies. The method is based on a glass-friendly, composite chemical process which involves a pre-treatment with oxygen plasma, followed by a subsequent treatment with piranha solution directly within nanochannels. The method allows effective and complete removal of residual biomolecules, such as antibodies, that remain in used-nanofluidic devices. Moreover, the regenerated functional nanofluidic devices can be reused for single-molecule capture and detection. This approach offers an easy-to-implement and cost-effective regeneration method, which significantly improves the reusability of nanofluidic devices. Therefore, it holds promising potential for contributing to the expasion of research and application of nanofluidic devices in many fields, including single-molecule studies.