Related papers: Two-dimensional adaptive membranes with programmab…

Developing 'smart' membranes that allow precise and reversible control of molecular permeation using external stimuli would be of intense interest for many areas of science: from physics and chemistry to life-sciences. In particular,…

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…

Membranes selective to ions of the same charge are increasingly sought for wastewater processing and valuable element recovery. However, while narrow channels are known to be essential, other membrane parameters remain difficult to identify…

Porous and flexible actuating materials are important in the development of smart systems. We report here a facile method to prepare scalable, flexible actuating porous membranes based on a poly(ionic liquid)-modified tissue paper. The…

Membranes act as selective barriers and play an important role in processes such as cellular compartmentalization and industrial-scale chemical and gas purification. The ideal membrane should be as thin as possible to maximize flux,…

Ultrahigh water permeance, together with a high rejection rate through nanofiltration and separation membranes1,2, is crucial but still challenging for multivalent ion sieving in water treatment processes of desalination, separation, and…

Recently, it was proposed that graphene membranes could act as impermeable atomic structures to standard gases. For some other applications, a higher level of porosity is needed, and the so-called Porous Graphene (PG) and Biphenylene Carbon…

We consider an anisotropically two-dimensional diffusion of a charged molecule (particle) through a large biological channel under an external voltage. The channel is modeled as a cylinder of three structure parameters: radius, length, and…

Microfluidic channels with embedded ion permselective medium under the application of electric current are commonly used for electrokinetic processes as on-chip ion concentration polarization (ICP) and bioparticle preconcentration to…

Graphene-based membranes have been investigated as promising candidates for water filtration and gas separation applications. Experimental evidences have shown that graphene oxide can be impermeable to liquids, vapors and gases, while…

Interactions mediated by the cell membrane between inclusions, such as membrane proteins or antimicrobial peptides, play important roles in their biological activity. They also constitute a fascinating challenge for physicists, since they…

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…

Ion channels orchestrate the communication between cells and their environment. These are special proteins capable of changing their shape to allow ions to pass through membranes in response to stimuli like membrane tension. As the letters…

Laminar MoS2 membranes show outstanding potential for practical applications in energy conversion/storage, sensing, and as nanofluidic devices. For water purification technologies, MoS2 membranes can form abundant nanocapillaries from…

Selective ion transport is a hallmark of biological ion channel behavior but is a major challenge to engineer into artificial membranes. Here, we demonstrate, with all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, that bare graphene nanopores yield…

Membrane pores are implicated in several critical functions, including cell fusion and the transport of signaling molecules for intercellular communication. However, these structural features are often difficult to probe directly. Droplet…

Biological membranes mainly consist of lipids and proteins. While the proteins have many functions as single molecules, the membrane as a whole displays physical properties that cannot be explained on the single molecule level. For example,…

Ion channels play a key role in regulating cell behavior and in electrical signaling. In these settings, polar and charged functional groups -- as well as protein response -- compensate for dehydration in an ion-dependent way, giving rise…

The understanding of the structural and thermal properties of membranes, low-dimensional flexible systems in a space of higher dimension, is pursued in many fields from string theory to chemistry and biology. The case of a two-dimensional…

Graphene oxide membranes show exceptional molecular permeation properties, with a promise for many applications. However, their use in ion sieving and desalination technologies is limited by a permeation cutoff of ~9 Angstrom, which is…