A Bio‐inspired Potassium and pH Responsive Double‐gated Nanochannel |
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Authors: | Meiying Liu Huacheng Zhang Kan Li Liping Heng Shutao Wang Ye Tian Lei Jiang |
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Affiliation: | Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, PR China |
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Abstract: | Bio‐inspired nanochannels have emerged as an interface to mimic the functionalities of biological nanochannels. One remaining challenge is to develop double‐gated nanochannels with dual response, which can regulate the ion transport direction by alternately opening and closing the two gates. In this work, a bio‐inspired potassium and pH responsive double‐gated nanosystem is presented, constructed through immobilizing C‐quadruplex and G‐quadruplex DNA molecules onto the top and bottom tip side of a cigar‐shaped nanochannel, respectively. It is demonstrated that the two gates of the nanochannel can be opened and closed alternately/simultaneously. This phenomenon results from the attached DNA conformational transition caused by adjusting the concentrations of potassium ion and proton. This design is believed to be the first example of dual‐responsive double‐gated nanosystem, and paves a new way to investigate more intelligent bio‐inspired nanofluidic system. |
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Keywords: | nanostructures DNA nanopores bio‐inspired smart materials |
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