112035422 – Pratheeksha Srinivasu

Group 2 – 5/31
Measurements of Nano and Micro Devices
(NEMS511000)

Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing

1. Title
Tunable Resistive Pulse sensing (TRPS):
It is one of the nanoparticle measurement techniques that is used in precise measurement of
nanoparticles in sample. Compared to other traditional nanoparticle characterization
technique TPRS measures different parameters like charge size and concentration of the
nanoparticles. This experiment has been carried out to measure the size, charge and
concentration of nanoparticles in an unknown sample.

2. Introduction
TRPS is the most powerful nanoparticle characterization system currently available. It is an
essential tool for nanoparticle research, development and quality assurance, particularly in
fields like nanomedicine, BioMEMS, Microfluidics etc. Since nanoparticles cannot be
roughly or quantitively characterized by naked eyes I have always wondered how such
miniaturized particle’s size and other parameters are measured. It was really interesting and
fascinating to learn practical conduction of this technique.

3. Procedure/Content
The working principle of TRPS technique is straight forward, firstly the voltage is applied
across a pore that is filled with electrolyte, giving rise to ionic current. As nanoparticles flow
across the pore, they cause change in the ionic current resulting in current dip also called
resistive pulse as they increase electrical resistance which is proportional to the size of the
particle. The figure below shows the ionic current vs time graph on basis of which the size,
charge and concentration of the nanoparticles can be evaluated. Some of the important
parameters that can measured are stated below

 The size of the particle is proportional to the magnitude of the current dip/ blockade
magnitude.
 The number of such dips or the frequency of resistive pulses is directly proportional
to the sample concentration.
 The FWHM value of each pulse gives us information about the charge of each
nanoparticle.
112035422 – Pratheeksha Srinivasu
Group 2 – 5/31
 Measuring against calibration particles of known size, concentration and surface
charge ensures the accuracy of measurements.
The system is called tunable because of the following reasons:

 It uses a polyurethane membrane which can be mechanically tuned (i.e. stretched) for
controlling the size of the nanopore.
 The applied pressure can be tuned for controlling the direction of flow of the fluid
through the nanopore.
 The applied voltage can be tuned for controlling the signal-to-noise ratio of the system as
well as determining the polarity of the nanoparticles.

Image Ref: https://www.izon.com/trps/how-it-works

112035422 – Pratheeksha Srinivasu
Group 2 – 5/31
The entire setup of the experiment is shown in figure below. Here septum is nothing but
nanopore

The left side of the figure indicates schematic diagram of particles travelling through a tunable
conical pore, indicating important parameters used in TRPS technology. Lower left and right are
typical experimental data showing resistive pulse signals and one individual pulse on an
expanded time scale.
The right side of the figure indicates tunable pore membrane (left), 3D image developed from
confocal microscopy of an elastic pore membrane (upper right) and SEM images of two pore
openings of different sizes.
Image ref: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128141823000092
112035422 – Pratheeksha Srinivasu
Group 2 – 5/31

4. Results

Experimental setup Electrolyte solution Sample

Below images indicates some of the resistive pulse observed during the conduction of
experiment

As pe the analysis report

 Particle diameter (nm)
Mean: 193 (Std Dev=19.0)
Mode: 186
Maximum: 260
112035422 – Pratheeksha Srinivasu
Group 2 – 5/31

Minimum: 125

 Concentration [0-∞] (particles/ml)

Measured Concentration: 9.10e+09
Raw Concentration: 2.28e+12

For calibrated Sample:

 Relative particle size (nA)
Mean: 0.269 (Std Dev=0.209)
Mode: 0.188
Maximum: 1.157
112035422 – Pratheeksha Srinivasu
Group 2 – 5/31

Minimum: 0.060

 Concentration (particles/ml)
Measured Concentration: Not Available
Raw concentration: Not Available

5. Discussion
The recorded data from the experiment was uploaded to software which produced
analysis report.
There were 2 analysis reports, one for calibrated sample and the other for unknown
sample.
112035422 – Pratheeksha Srinivasu
Group 2 – 5/31
Due to malfunction of the experiment, the results were not good enough to properly
deduce the measured parameters values like size charge and concentration of
nanoparticles.
Although based on the analysis report, we recorded the size and concentration of
nanoparticles.
Also, the information about the charge of the nanoparticle is still not known, I believe we
must investigate the FWHM values of resistive pulse to calculate charge value. But the
resistive pulse data was not provided.

6. Conclusion
Overall, it was a very informative lab session. It was amazing to see TRPS instruments
and to visually witness how they are used. As the professor mentioned in the class, TRPS
and other similar techniques can be used in medical tests like number of RBC, WBC or
platelets counts from blood , covid tests, detection of new virus and their characteristics.
Further in research , it can also be used to measure the ionic current carried by the ionic
solutions or samples in micro/nanofluidic channel since the instrument can measure
current as small as nA.

- Pratheeksha Srinivasu
- 112035422
- Group 2