Related papers: Hydration Mimicry by Membrane Ion Channels
Thermochemistry of gas-phase ion-water clusters together with estimates of the hydration free energy of the clusters and the water ligands are used to calculate the hydration free energy of the ion. Often the hydration calculations use a…
The movement of ionic solutions is an essential part of biology and technology. Fluidics, from nano- to micro- to microfluidics, is a burgeoning area of technology which is all about the movement of ionic solutions, on various scales. Many…
The interpretation electrical phenomena in biomembranes is usually based on the assumption that the experimentally found discrete ion conduction events are due to a particular class of proteins called ion channels while the lipid membrane…
A simple theory of ion permeation through a channel is presented, in which diffusion occurs according to Fick's law and drift according to Ohm's law, in the electric field determined by all the charges present. This theory accounts for…
We discuss various models of ion transport through cell membrane channels. Recent experimental data shows that sizes of ion channels are compared to those of ions and that only few ions may be simultaneously in any single channel.…
The paper shows how the diffusive movement of ions through a channel protein can be described as a chemical reaction over an arbitrary shaped potential barrier. The result is simple and intuitive but without approximation beyond the…
We consider a simple working hypothesis that all permeation properties of open ionic channels can be predicted by understanding electrodiffusion in fixed structures, without invoking conformation changes, or changes in chemical bonds. We…
Hydroxide ion transport in anion-exchange membranes fundamentally limits the efficiency of alkaline water electrolysis for green hydrogen production, yet the atomic-scale transport mechanisms remain poorly understood due to the…
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…
Some aspects of direct ion transfer across the water/1,2-dichloroethane are analyzed using a very simple model based on thermodynamic considerations. It was concluded that ion solvation by water molecules may occur in some particular cases…
The results of molecular dynamics simulations of the properties of water in an aqueous ionic solution close to an interface with a model metallic electrode are described. In the simulations the electrode behaves as an ideally polarizable…
Ionic transport in nanopores or nanochannels is key to many cellular processes and is now being explored as a method for DNA/polymer sequencing and detection. Although apparently simple in its scope, the study of ionic dynamics in confined…
Ion channels are proteins with a hole down the middle embedded in cell membranes. Membranes form insulating structures and the channels through them allow and control the movement of charged particles, spherical ions, mostly Na+, K+, Ca++,…
Molecular Dynamics simulations of water molecules in nanometre sized cylindrical channels connecting two reservoirs show that the permeation of water is very sensitive to the channel radius and to electric polarization of the embedding…
Transmembrane ion flow through channel proteins undergoing density fluctuations may cause lateral gradients of the electrical potential across the membrane giving rise to electrophoresis of charged channels. A model for the dynamics of the…
Water diffusion through membrane proteins is a key aspect of cellular function. Essential processes of cellular metabolism are driven by osmotic pressure, which depends on water channels. Membrane proteins such as aquaporins (AQPs) are…
In this article we address the three-dimensional modeling and simulation of biological ion channels using a continuum-based approach. Our multi-physics formulation self-consistently combines, to the best of our knowledge for the first time,…
Experimental studies on ion-water clusters have provided insights into the microscopic aspects of hydration phenomena. One common view is that extending those experimental studies to larger cluster sizes would give the single ion absolute…
Potassium (K-) channels catalyze K+ ion permeation across cellular membranes while simultaneously discriminating their permeation over Na+ ions by more than a factor of a thousand. Structural studies show bare K+ ions occupying the…
The prospects of application of graphene and related structures as the membrane mimetic materials, capable of reproducing several biomembrane functions up to the certain limit, are analyzed in the series of our papers. This paper considers…