NanoMechanical Sensing

Micro and nanomechanical resonators have been widely used in the last decades as highly sensitive mass detectors for biological and chemical applications. Since more than ten years, we are developing bioassays based on microcantilever resonator arrays, able to successfully detect minimum concentrations of target molecules such as tumor biomarkers, allergens, and carcinogenic small molecules, as well as single pathogenic bacteria.

More recently, new approaches are catalyzing the attention of the scientific community, such as Suspended Microchannel Resonators (SMRs) to minimize  the damping associated with the fluidic viscous drag, 1D and 2D materials (CNT, graphene) to increase the mass sensitivity down to yoctogram range, and nanomechanical Mass Spectrometry (NEMS-MS) to identify mass and position of single particles.

In such a scenario, our current research is focusing on:

  • nanomechanical resonators based on 1D and 2D nanostructures of inorganic and biological materials 
  • nanofluidic resonators towards single nanoparticle characterization in liquid
  • monolithic and totally transparent Suspended Microchannel Resonators (SMRs)

Please have a deeper look clicking on the following links:

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