Related papers: Crowded Charges in Ion Channels
The transport and dispersion of multiple species of charged ions are central to many biological and physical processes, including electrokinetic ion separation. However, most theoretical studies of dispersion in channels have focused on…
We demonstrate that two mechanisms used by biological ion channels to select particles by size are driven by entropy. With uncharged particles in an infinite cylinder, we show that a channel that attracts particles is small-particle…
We have developed a molecular mean-field theory -- fourth-order Poisson-Nernst-Planck-Bikerman theory -- for modeling ionic and water flows in biological ion channels by treating ions and water molecules of any volume and shape with…
A wide variety of biological as well as non-biological processes and phenomena involving ion channels, binding, pH, folding/unfolding and effects of chain length are well represented by multiphasic profiles, a series of straight lines…
We present an equilibrium statistical-mechanical theory of selectivity in biological ion channels. In doing so, we introduce a grand canonical ensemble for ions in a channel's selectivity filter coupled to internal and external bath…
Ion hydration and interfacial water play crucial roles in numerous phenomena ranging from biological to industrial systems. Although biologically relevant (and mostly smaller) ions have been studied extensively in this context, very little…
Ionic liquids are promising candidates for novel electrolytes as they possess large electrochemical and thermodynamic stability and offer a high degree of tunability. As purely-ionic electrolyte without neutral solvent they exhibit…
Potassium channels play critical roles in many physiological processes, providing a selective permeation route for K+ ions in and out of a cell, by employing a carefully designed selectivity filter, evolutionarily conserved from viruses to…
Ionic liquids (ILs), also known as room-temperature molten salts, are composed of pure ions with melting points usually below 100 degrees centigrade. Because of their low volatility and vast amounts of species, ILs can serve as "green…
It has long been accepted that the multiple-ion single-file transport model is appropriate for many kinds of ion channels. However, most of the purely theoretical works in this field did not capture all of the important features of the…
Hydrophobic solid-water interfaces underpin processes in nanofluidics, electrochemistry, and energy technologies. Microscopic insights into these systems are often inferred from our understanding of the air-water interface, which is assumed…
Life on Earth depends upon the dissolution of ionic salts in water, particularly NaCl. However, an atomistic scale understanding of the process remains elusive. Simulations lend themselves conveniently to studying dissolution since they…
We study dynamics and thermodynamics of ion channels, considered as effective 1D Coulomb systems. The long range nature of the inter-ion interactions comes about due to the dielectric constants mismatch between the water and lipids,…
Ion transport measurements are widely used as an indirect probe for various properties of confined electrolytes. It is generally assumed that the ion concentration in a nanoscale channel is equal to the ion concentration in the macroscopic…
Ionic flow carries electrical signals for cells to communicate with each other. The permanent charge of an ion channel is a crucial protein structure for flow properties while boundary conditions play a role of the driving force. Their…
Salt water is ubiquitous, playing crucial roles in geological and physiological processes. Despite centuries of investigations, whether or not water's structure is drastically changed by dissolved ions is still debated. Based on density…
Progress in electrochemical applications of ionic liquids builds on an understanding of electrical double-layer. This computational study focuses on structure-determined quantities -- maximum packing density, potentials and capacitances --…
Dynamic fluctuations in hydrogen-bond network of water occur from femto- to nano-second timescale and provides insights into structural/dynamical aspects of water at ion-water interfaces. Employing terahertz spectroscopy assisted with…
Ion transport is the major determining factor of salinity tolerance in plants. A simple scheme of a plant cell with ion fluxes provides basic understanding of ion transport and the corresponding changes of ion concentrations under salinity.…
Ionic liquids offer unique bulk and interfacial characteristics as battery electrolytes. Our continuum approach naturally describes the electrolyte on a macroscale. An integral formulation for the molecular repulsion,which can be…