Bioinspired Smart Gate-Location-Controllable Single Nanochannels: Experiment and Theoretical Simulation

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• 作者：Huacheng Zhang ; Ye Tian ; Jue Hou ; Xu Hou ; Guanglei Hou ; Ranwen Ou ; Huanting Wang ; Lei Jiang
• 刊名：ACS Nano
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：December 22, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：9
• 期：12
• 页码：12264-12273
• 全文大小：755K
• ISSN：1936-086X

文摘

pH-activated gates intelligently govern the ion transport behaviors of a wide range of bioinspired ion channels, but the mechanisms between the gate locations and the functionalities of the ion channels remain poorly understood. Here, we construct an artificial gate-location-tunable single-nanochannel system to systematically investigate the impact of the gate location on the ion transport property of the biomimetic ion channel. The gate-location-controllable single nanochannels are prepared by asymmetrically grafting pH-responsive polymer gates on one side of single nanochannels with gradual shape transformation. Experimental ion current measurements show that the gating abilities and rectification effects of the pH-gated nanochannels can be gradually altered by precisely locating the artificial pH gates on the different sites of the channels. The experimental gate-location-dependent gating and rectification of ion current in the bioinspired ion channel system is further well confirmed by theoretical simulation. This work, as an example, provides a new avenue to optimize the smart ion transport features of diverse artificial nanogate devices via precisely locating the gates on the appropriate sites of the artificial nanochannels.