CUG team led by Prof. XIA Fan from the State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology and School of Materials Science and Chemistry published “Towards explicit regulating-ion-transport: nanochannels with only function-elements at outer-surface” in Nature Communications on March 10, 2021. The first author is doctoral student MA Qun from the School of Materials Science and Chemistry, and the corresponding authors are Prof. GAO Pengcheng and Prof. XIA Fan. The abstract of the paper is as follows.
Function elements (FE) are vital components of nanochannel-systems for artificially regulating ion transport. Conventionally, the FE at inner wall (FEIW) of nanochannel−systems are of concern owing to their recognized effect on the compression of ionic passageways. However, their properties are inexplicit or generally presumed from the properties of the FE at outer surface (FEOS), which will bring potential errors. Here, we show that the FEOS independently regulate ion transport in a nanochannel−system without FEIW. The numerical simulations, assigned the measured parameters of FEOS to the Poisson and Nernst-Planck (PNP) equations, are well fitted with the experiments, indicating the generally explicit regulating-ion-transport accomplished by FEOS without FEIW. Meanwhile, the FEOS fulfill the key features of the pervious nanochannel systems on regulating-ion-transport in osmotic energy conversion devices and biosensors, and show advantages to (1) promote power density through concentrating FE at outer surface, bringing increase of ionic selectivity but no obvious change in internal resistance; (2) accommodate probes or targets with size beyond the diameter of nanochannels. Nanochannel-systems with only FEOS of explicit properties provide a quantitative platform for studying substrate transport phenomena through nanoconfined space, including nanopores, nanochannels, nanopipettes, porous membranes and two-dimensional channels.
a Stage 1, FEOS and FEIW immobilized as a whole, in which the role of FEOS on ion transport and the properties of FEIW are inexplicit (two “black boxes” exist). b Stage 2, FEOS and FEIW as distinct part, in which the role of FEOS on ion transport began to be paid attention and investigated, but the properties of FEIW are still inexplicit (start to open the 1st “black box”). c Stage 3, in this work, independent FEOS without FEIW in nanochannel-system for regulating-ion-transport (further reveal the 1st “black box”), in which the properties of both FEOS and nanochannels are measurable, making the properties of the whole nanochannel-system explicit to a great extent (avoid the trouble from the 2nd “black box”).
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21507-7
