Planar lipid bilayers, also called artificial lipid bilayers, allow you to study ion-conducting channels in a well-defined environment. Here, we demonstrate the individual steps needed to prepare the bilayer chamber, the electrodes and how to test that the bilayer is suitable for single-channel measurements.
Kapoor, R., H. Kim, J., Ingolfson, H., Sparre Andersen, O. Preparation of Artificial Bilayers for Electrophysiology Experiments. J. Vis. Exp. (20), e1033, doi:10.3791/1033 (2008).