Suspended integration of pyrolytic carbon membrane on C-MEMS oral presentation

Pyrolytic carbon materials contain high internal surface area, desirable pore structure, and controlled surface functionalities, making them effective for gas purification, separation, storage, and chemical reactions. This research describes a two-step (i.e., photolithography and pyrolysis) procedure to integrate suspended porous carbon membranes on C-MEMS from SU-8 photolithography precursor. The suspended SU-8 film was first generated simultaneously with micro-post array during lithography through controlling exposure parameters. A followed pyrolyzing process converted the structure into carbon microelectrode array with the pyrolytic membrane on top of it. It was demonstrated that stress generated during pyrolysis could be applied to control the porosity of membrane, and such high-porosity membrane can find various applications, especially in the field of filtration, selective gas permeation and carbon microreactors. The electrochemical property of this integrated structure has been explored through cyclic voltammetric measurements. It shows that the specific capacitance increase of almost 4 times after the pyrolytic carbon membrane integration, which indicates its potential use in energy-related fields.