Advanced Silicon Membranes

A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375). This special issue belongs to the section "Inorganic Membranes".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 October 2021) | Viewed by 3988

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
Interests: MEMS/NEMS; micro-sensors; microactuators and nanoelectronics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
Interests: MMEMS/NEMS devices and technology; micro-sensors; biomimicking MEMS devices

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Silicon (Si) is a well-established material that plays vital role in the development of various MEMS devices thanks to its excellent electrical properties and mature technology adopted from the IC (integrated circuit) industry. It is available in large quantities with high purity and low defect density.

Silicon is therefore regarded as the most valuable material for attaining high-quality products with very precise controlled fabrication processes. In the future, silicon technology will still be a key enabling technology that extends towards the development of membrane technology thanks to its superior mechanical properties, such as high strength, high stiffness, high mechanical repeatability, and lack of mechanical hysteresis. Research advancement in silicon-based thin materials would expand the new potential applications and design of silicon-based membranes to not only electronics and chemical analysis instrumentation but also to the field of renewable energy, as well as advanced automotive and biomedical applications.

This Special Issue of Membranes on “Advanced Silicon Membranes” is dedicated to providing a comprehensive coverage on the state-of-the-art and future development of advanced silicon membrane technology. Topics include, but are not limited to, single-crystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, silicon-based compound materials, porous silicon, nano-porous silicon, MEMS, NEMS, smart membranes, novel membrane fabrication, and novel membrane applications. Authors are invited to submit their latest results; both original papers and reviews are welcome.

Dr. Jumril Yunas
Dr. Rhonira Latif
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Membranes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Silicon based membrane
  • Single crystal
  • Polycrystal
  • Porous and nanoporous
  • Compound materials
  • MEMS and NEMS
  • Sensors and actuators
  • Fabrication
  • Applications

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

12 pages, 2890 KiB  
Article
Free Standing, Large-Area Silicon Nitride Membranes for High Toxin Clearance in Blood Surrogate for Small-Format Hemodialysis
by Joshua J. Miller, Jared A. Carter, Kayli Hill, Jon-Paul S. DesOrmeaux, Robert N. Carter, Thomas R. Gaborski, James A. Roussie, James L. McGrath and Dean G. Johnson
Membranes 2020, 10(6), 119; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes10060119 - 6 Jun 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3209
Abstract
Developing highly-efficient membranes for toxin clearance in small-format hemodialysis presents a fabrication challenge. The miniaturization of fluidics and controls has been the focus of current work on hemodialysis (HD) devices. This approach has not addressed the membrane efficiency needed for toxin clearance in [...] Read more.
Developing highly-efficient membranes for toxin clearance in small-format hemodialysis presents a fabrication challenge. The miniaturization of fluidics and controls has been the focus of current work on hemodialysis (HD) devices. This approach has not addressed the membrane efficiency needed for toxin clearance in small-format hemodialysis devices. Dr. Willem Kolff built the first dialyzer in 1943 and many changes have been made to HD technology since then. However, conventional HD still uses large instruments with bulky dialysis cartridges made of ~2 m2 of 10 micron thick, tortuous-path membrane material. Portable, wearable, and implantable HD systems may improve clinical outcomes for patients with end-stage renal disease by increasing the frequency of dialysis. The ability of ultrathin silicon-based sheet membranes to clear toxins is tested along with an analytical model predicting long-term multi-pass experiments from single-pass clearance experiments. Advanced fabrication methods are introduced that produce a new type of nanoporous silicon nitride sheet membrane that features the pore sizes needed for middle-weight toxin removal. Benchtop clearance results with sheet membranes (~3 cm2) match a theoretical model and indicate that sheet membranes can reduce (by orders of magnitude) the amount of membrane material required for hemodialysis. This provides the performance needed for small-format hemodialysis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Silicon Membranes)
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