Rapid fabrication of Teflon micropores for artificial lipid bilayer formation

A number of recent studies have dealt with the development of biosensors using single-channel recording with an artificial lipid bilayer. However, the fragility of these bilayers and current noise present serious problems in their application towards biosensor development. To address this problem, many experimental investigations employing micropores in the formation of lipid bilayers have been reported. In this work, we present a method for the fabrication of micropores using commercially available low-melting Teflon film and a heated tip. This method allowed for the rapid (in a few seconds) and reproducible fabrication of micropores 2-3 microm in diameter. We employed a single-channel recording using a gramicidin channel and confirmed that the bilayer membrane can form on micropores by the painting method. The bilayer formed is stable under high voltage (+1000mV). Fabricated micropores possess a conical shape with sharp edges, features which facilitated the formation of artificial lipid bilayers which could be utilized for low-noise and high voltage recording due to decreased access resistance and increased bilayer stability. These advantages promise to improve the performance of artificial lipid bilayers when employed in the development of flexible biosensors.