Electrostatic gating of ionic fluxes at conical glass nanopores

该项目涉及锥形玻璃纳米孔中的离子通量（主要是K+和Cl-）。这样的纳米孔可以在标准实验室中容易且可重复地制造。它们显示出离子电流整流（ICR）的有趣特征，这意味着它们的稳态电流-电压曲线偏离直线。ICR的初步结果似乎是一种离子优先通过孔移位。然而，其基本机制尚未完全了解。我们的目标是促进对ICR的基本理解。我们还提出了一种方法，如何实现在金属化纳米孔的离子通量的直接静电门控。合成纳米孔被广泛用作生物孔的模型系统。离子通量的选择性是生物孔隙功能的一个关键特征，我们希望我们的结果对生物物理界有意义。

This project deals with ionic fluxes (mainly K+ and Cl-) at conical glass nanopores. Such nanopores can be easily and reproducibly manufactured in a standard lab. They show the interesting feature of ion current rectification (ICR) which means that their steady state current voltage curve deviates from a straight line. A preliminary for ICR seems to be that one ionic species translocates preferentially through the orifice. However, the underlying mechanism is not fully understood. Our aim is to contribute to the fundamental understanding of ICR. We also propose an approach how to realize a direct electrostatic gating of the ionic fluxes at metallized nanopores. Synthetic nanopores are widely used as model systems for biological pores. Selectivity of ionic fluxes is a key feature for the functioning of biological pores, and we expect our results to be interesting for the biophysical community.