Fig. 2.

Schematic of the kiss and retreat bilayer formation process and corresponding trans-membrane current traces measured with the integrated chip electrodes. (a) Lipid solution in isobutanol/hexadecane is injected from a side channel. (b) Lipid solution sweeps across the aperture, leaving a monolayer at the interface. (c) Lipid solution is withdrawn to the side channel, leaving a plug of lipid solution at the aperture. (d) As the lipid solution plug thins by solvent diffusion, a bilayer lipid membrane forms across the aperture. Electrical measurements were performed using a triangle wave with 150 mV amplitude and 500 Hz frequency. The stray capacitance of the chip was measured as 3.33 pF. The 60 μm diameter BLM was formed across an 80 μm diameter aperture. The final measured current corresponds to a membrane capacitance of 26.7 pF (0.94 μF/cm²) confirming the formation of a bilayer. The sealing resistance of BLM ranged from 1.5 – 2.5 GΩ.