Chernev Andrey, Marion Sanjin, Radenovic Aleksandra
Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology, Institute of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Entropy (Basel). 2020 Dec 18;22(12):1430. doi: 10.3390/e22121430.
Nanofluidics encompasses a wide range of advanced approaches to study charge and mass transport at the nanoscale. Modern technologies allow us to develop and improve artificial nanofluidic platforms that confine ions in a way similar to single-ion channels in living cells. Therefore, nanofluidic platforms show great potential to act as a test field for theoretical models. This review aims to highlight ionic Coulomb blockade (ICB)-an effect that is proposed to be the key player of ion channel selectivity, which is based upon electrostatic exclusion limiting ion transport. Thus, in this perspective, we focus on the most promising approaches that have been reported on the subject. We consider ion confinements of various dimensionalities and highlight the most recent advancements in the field. Furthermore, we concentrate on the most critical obstacles associated with these studies and suggest possible solutions to advance the field further.
纳米流体学涵盖了一系列用于研究纳米尺度下电荷和质量传输的先进方法。现代技术使我们能够开发和改进人工纳米流体平台，这些平台以类似于活细胞中单离子通道的方式限制离子。因此，纳米流体平台作为理论模型的测试场具有巨大潜力。本综述旨在突出离子库仑阻塞（ICB）——一种被认为是离子通道选择性关键因素的效应，它基于静电排斥限制离子传输。因此，从这个角度出发，我们关注该主题已报道的最有前景的方法。我们考虑各种维度的离子限制，并突出该领域的最新进展。此外，我们专注于与这些研究相关的最关键障碍，并提出进一步推动该领域发展的可能解决方案。
