SPIE Photonics West BiOS Conference Presentation: Rapid detection of intact SARS-CoV-2 viral particles using silicon nanomembranes

Background: Similar to the Gaborski lab, the authors of the publication “Microfabrication of high-resolution porous membranes for cell culture” fabricated and characterized ultra-thin polymeric membranes for use as cell culture substrates. Upon reviewing their publication, Tom and I discussed some of the experiments that we’d like to replicate to further characterize the SiO2 membrane for our…

I was motivated to scan our membrane edges after looking at this image from the paper Maryna presented last week: I found a couple of pnc-Si samples with membranes still attached to the edges.  I also found one sample with a membrane split almost down the middle.  I coated the samples with 3nm of Au…

UPDATED: More sizing characterization (see chart and figure below). We recently purchased our own gold ladder, and today I’ve done some of the initial characterization.  Particles come in 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, and 40nm.  Here are the absorbance scans in both water and 10mM KCl: The scans look similar, so none of these particles…

Manufacturer’s Data Logged by: Ahmet Gurcan Membrane Type: MSSN 8 micron Microslit – Gold Coated SKU: MSSN400.C-3LX.1-8.0K2-AU Lot Number: 251028-10 Quantity Received: 200 Manufacturer Test Report: Flow Data Avg in SLPM 15psi: 7.6 Burst: 16.1 PSI

  (Meghan Kazanski actually did all the work, but she didn’t have a login when this post was started.) The calculated porosity is 16.4 % with an average pore diameter of 417 nm. SepCon assembly was performed with chips from wafer 4409. Assembly was performed systematically – SepCons were boxed following assembly for later control…