Controlling ion and water transport on a molecular scale is important for separation applications ranging from industrial water treatment, to biomedical separations. Biological pores move ions and small molecules across membranes and often rely on pronounced nanoscale confinement effects to achieve efficient and exquisitely selective transport. I will show that carbon nanotube porins—pore channels formed by ultra-short carbon nanotubes assembled in a lipid membrane—can exploit similar physical principles to transport water, protons, and small ions with efficiency that rivals and sometimes exceeds that of biological channels. I will discuss the role of molecular confinement, slip flow, nanotube diameter and electronic structure in these pores and show how it can enhance water and proton transport efficiency and define the ion selectivity mechanisms in these pores. Overall, carbon nanotube porins represent simple and versatile biomimetic membrane pore scaffolds for building the next generation of precision separation technologies.

Molecular transport and ion selectivity under extreme confinement in carbon nanotube porins

ACS Spring 2022

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