Search results for "nanopores"
showing 10 items of 34 documents
Highly selective chemical sensing in a luminescent nanoporous magnet.
2012
Among the wide variety of properties of interest that a given material can exhibit, luminescence is attracting an increasing attention due to its potential application in optical devices for lighting equipment and optical storage, [ 1a − c] optical switching, [ 1d ,e] and sensing. [ 1f − i ] At this respect, many scientists, working in the multidisciplinary fi eld of the materials science, have directed their efforts to the obtention of luminescent materials with potential sensing applications. For instance, sensitive and selective detection of gas and vapor phase analytes can result specially interesting because of the variety of applications that can be found in many different fi elds. A …
Calcium binding and ionic conduction in single conical nanopores with polyacid chains: model and experiments.
2012
Calcium binding to fixed charge groups confined over nanoscale regions is relevant to ion equilibrium and transport in the ionic channels of the cell membranes and artificial nanopores. We present an experimental and theoretical description of the dissociation equilibrium and transport in a single conical nanopore functionalized with pH-sensitive carboxylic acid groups and phosphonic acid chains. Different phenomena are simultaneously present in this basic problem of physical and biophysical chemistry: (i) the divalent nature of the phosphonic acid groups fixed to the pore walls and the influence of the pH and calcium on the reversible dissociation equilibrium of these groups; (ii) the asym…
Enhanced antifungal efficacy of tebuconazole using gated pH-driven mesoporous nanoparticles
2014
Núria Mas,1–3 Irene Galiana,3 Silvia Hurtado,† Laura Mondragón,1–3 Andrea Bernardos,1–3 Félix Sancenón,1–3 María D Marcos,1–3 Pedro Amorós,4 Nuria Abril-Utrillas,5 Ramón Martínez-Máñez,1–3 José Ramón Murguía1,3 1Centro de Reconocimiento Molecular y Desarrollo Tecnológico (IDM), Centro Mixto Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, Spain; 2Departamento de Química, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valenci…
Impact of Surface Charge Directionality on Membrane Potential in Multi-ionic Systems
2020
The membrane potential (Vmem), defined as the electric potential difference across a membrane flanked by two different salt solutions, is central to electrochemical energy harvesting and conversion. Also, Vmem and the ionic concentrations that establish it are important to biophysical chemistry because they regulate crucial cell processes. We study experimentally and theoretically the salt dependence of Vmem in single conical nanopores for the case of multi-ionic systems of different ionic charge numbers. The major advances of this work are (i) to measure Vmem using a series of ions (Na+, K+, Ca2+, Cl-, and SO42-) that are of interest to both energy conversion and cell biochemistry, (ii) to…
Ionic Transport through Chemically Functionalized Hydrogen Peroxide-Sensitive Asymmetric Nanopores
2015
We describe the fabrication of a chemical-sensitive nanofluidic device based on asymmetric nanopores whose transport characteristics can be modulated upon exposure to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). We show experimentally and theoretically that the current-voltage curves provide a suitable method to monitor the H2O2-mediated change in pore surface characteristics from the electronic readouts. We demonstrate also that the single pore characteristics can be scaled to the case of a multipore membrane whose electric outputs can be readily controlled. Because H2O2 is an agent significant for medical diagnostics, the results should be useful for sensing nanofluidic devices.
Electrical Pumping of Potassium Ions Against an External Concentration Gradient in a Biological Ion Channel
2013
We show experimentally and theoretically that significant currents can be obtained with a biological ion channel, the OmpF porin of Escherichia coli, using zero-average potentials as driving forces. The channel rectifying properties can be used to pump potassium ions against an external concentration gradient under asymmetric pH conditions. The results are discussed in terms of the ionic selectivity and rectification ratio of the channel. The physical concepts involved may be applied to separation processes with synthetic nanopores and to bioelectrical phenomena. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.
Dynamic and electronic transport properties of DNA translocation through graphene nanopores
2013
Graphene layers have been targeted in the last years as excellent host materials for sensing a remarkable variety of gases and molecules. Such sensing abilities can also benefit other important scientific fields such as medicine and biology. This has automatically led scientists to probe graphene as a potential platform for sequencing DNA strands. In this work, we use robust numerical tools to model the dynamic and electronic properties of molecular sensor devices composed of a graphene nanopore through which DNA molecules are driven by external electric fields. We performed molecular dynamic simulations to determine the relation between the intensity of the electric field and the transloca…
Asymmetric nanopore rectification for ion pumping, electrical power generation, and information processing applications
2011
Single-track, asymmetric nanopores can currently be functionalised with a spatially inhomogeneous distribution of fixed charges and a variety of pore tip shapes. Optimising the asymmetric nanopore characteristics is crucial for practical applications in nanofluidics. We have addressed here this question for three cases based on different input/output chemical and electrical signals: (i) ion pumping up a concentration gradient by means of a periodic, time-dependent bias potential, (ii) information processing with a single nanopore acting as the nanofluidic diode of a logic gate, and (iii) electrical energy harvesting using a nanopore that separates two solutions of different salt concentrati…
Biomolecular conjugation inside synthetic polymer nanopores via glycoprotein-lectin interactions
2011
We demonstrate the supramolecular bioconjugation of concanavalin A (Con A) protein with glycoenzyme horseradish peroxidase (HRP) inside single nanopores, fabricated in heavy ion tracked polymer membranes. Firstly, the HRP-enzyme was covalently immobilized on the inner wall of the pores using carbodiimide coupling chemistry. The immobilized HRP-enzyme molecules bear sugar (mannose) groups available for the binding of Con A protein. Secondly, the bioconjugation of Con A on the pore wall was achieved through its biospecific interactions with the mannose residues of the HRP enzyme. The immobilization of biomolecules inside the nanopore leads to the reduction of the available area for ionic tran…
Single cigar-shaped nanopores functionalized with amphoteric amino acid chains: experimental and theoretical characterization.
2012
We present an experimental and theoretical characterization of single cigar-shaped nanopores with pH-responsive carboxylic acid and lysine chains functionalized on the pore surface. The nanopore characterization includes (i) optical images of the nanostructure obtained by FESEM; (ii) different chemical procedures for the nanopore preparation (etching time and functionalizations; pH and electrolyte concentration of the external solution) allowing externally tunable nanopore responses monitored by the current-voltage (I-V) curves; and (iii) transport simulations obtained with a multilayer nanopore model. We show that a single, approximately symmetric nanopore can be operated as a reconfigurab…