1.D.182. The Nanoparticle Blockage-enabled Nanopore Gating with Tunable Memory (NpNp) Family

Biological nanochannels operate in organisms to control mass transmembrane transport. Inspired by biological nanochannels, intelligent artificial solid-state nanopores have been constructed with the development of nanotechnology. Light-controlled nanopores exhibit unique advantages as ion and molecular transport can be regulated remotely, spatially and temporally. Light-controlled solid-state nanopores can be divided into light-regulated ion channels with ion gating and ion rectification functions, and light-driven ion pumps with active ion transport property. In a review, Lu et al. 2022 presented a systematic overview of light-controlled ion channels and ion pumps according to the photo-responsive components in the system. Then, the related applications of solid-state nanopores for molecular sensing, water purification and energy conversion are discussed. A brief conclusion with short outlook are offered for future development of the field. 

Gated protein channels act as rapid, reversible, and fully-closeable nanoscale valves to gate chemical transport across a cell membrane. Yazbeck et al. 2022 reported a rapid and reversible nanopore gating strategy based on controlled nanoparticle blockage. By using rigid or soft nanoparticles, they respectively achieved a trapping blockage gating mode with volatile memory where gating is realized by electrokinetically trapped nanoparticles near the pore and contact blockage gating modes with nonvolatile memory where gating is realized by a nanoparticle physically blocking the pore. This gating strategy can respond to an external voltage stimulus (∼200 mV) or pressure stimulus (∼1 atm) with response time down to milliseconds (Yazbeck et al. 2022).