Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1530269 | Materials Science and Engineering: B | 2009 | 5 Pages |
This review summarizes recent results of the ion transport in narrow peptide nanochannels (PNCs) conducting ions and water molecules at various densities. The molecular structure of the nanochannel is a periodic continuation of the short selectivity pore of a biological potassium channel. The ion conductivity of a PNC can reach ion velocities up to 50 m/s. This phenomena is based on a fine tuned interplay between the three constituents of the PNC: the ions, the water molecules, and the flexible carbonyl groups of the channel’s backbone, which represents a one-dimensional fluctuating lattice potential for ions and water. The unidirectional transport is based on hopping processes of bound ion–water pairs (‘permons’) mediated by the lattice potential.