Open AccessRole of outer surface probes for regulating ion gating of nanochannels
Author(s) -
Xinchun Li,
Tianyou Zhai,
Pengcheng Gao,
Hongli Cheng,
Ruizuo Hou,
Xiaoding Lou,
Fan Xia
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
nature communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.559
H-Index - 365
ISSN - 2041-1723
DOI - 10.1038/s41467-017-02447-7
Subject(s) - gating , ion , ion channel , nanotechnology , materials science , ionic bonding , current (fluid) , chemical physics , biophysics , chemistry , physics , biology , biochemistry , receptor , organic chemistry , thermodynamics
Nanochannels with functional elements have shown promise for DNA sequencing, single-molecule sensing, and ion gating. Ionic current measurement is currently a benchmark, but is focused solely on the contribution from nanochannels’ inner-wall functional elements (NIWFE); the attributes of functional elements at nanochannels’ outer surface (NOSFE) are nearly ignored, and remain elusive. Here we show that the role of NOSFE and NIWFE for ion gating can be distinguished by constructing DNA architectures using dual-current readout. The established molecular switches have continuously tunable and reversible ion-gating ability. We find that NOSFE exhibits negligible ion-gating behavior, but it can produce a synergistic effect in alliance with NIWFE. Moreover, the high-efficiency gating systems display more noticeable synergistic effect than the low-efficiency ones. We also reveal that the probe amount of NOSFE and NIWFE is almost equally distributed in our biomimetic nanochannels, which is potentially a premise for the synergistic ion-gating phenomena.