Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, 210G Rowland Hall, Irvine, California 92697, United States.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Dec 16;12(50):56622-56631. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c18574. Epub 2020 Dec 7.
There has been considerable interest in preparing ionic circuits capable of manipulating ionic and molecular transport in a solution. This direction of research is inspired by biological systems where multiple pores with different functionalities embedded in a cell membrane transmit external signals and underlie all physiological processes. In this manuscript, we describe the modeling of ion transport through small arrays of nanopores consisting of 3, 6, and 9 nanopores and an integrated gate electrode placed on the membrane surface next to one pore opening. We show that by tuning the gate voltage and strategically placing nanopores with nonlinear current-voltage characteristics, the local signal at the gate affects ionic transport through all nanopores in the array. Conditions were identified when the same gate voltage induced opposite rectification properties of neighboring nanopores. We also demonstrate that an ionic diode embedded in a nanopore array can modulate transport properties of neighboring pores even without a gate voltage. The results are explained by the role of concentration polarization and overlapping depletion zones on one side of the membrane. The modeling presented here is intended to become an inspiration to future experiments to create nanopore arrays that can transduce signals in space and time.
人们一直对制备能够在溶液中操纵离子和分子传输的离子电路很感兴趣。这一研究方向受到生物系统的启发，生物系统中的多个具有不同功能的孔嵌入在细胞膜中，传输外部信号并构成所有生理过程的基础。在本文中，我们描述了通过由 3、6 和 9 个纳米孔组成的纳米孔小阵列以及集成在靠近一个孔开口的膜表面上的栅极电极进行离子传输的建模。我们表明，通过调整栅极电压并战略性地放置具有非线性电流-电压特性的纳米孔，可以在局部信号在栅极处影响通过阵列中所有纳米孔的离子传输。确定了相同栅极电压诱导相邻纳米孔相反整流特性的条件。我们还证明，即使没有栅极电压，嵌入在纳米孔阵列中的离子二极管也可以调制相邻孔的传输特性。该结果解释了膜一侧的浓度极化和重叠耗尽区的作用。本文提出的建模旨在为未来创建能够在空间和时间中转导信号的纳米孔阵列的实验提供灵感。
