Ionic transport through carbon nanotube porins

Interfacial communication is important in living organisms. Take a cell for example, cell membrane separates inner and outer environments. When the outside environment changes, a cell perceives and responds it by membrane proteins. A large class of membrane proteins, namely channel proteins, react to the alteration in environment by transporting water and ions. The water transport in and out of cells is key to a great number of physiological processes. For instance, aquaporin-1 is a channel protein in cell membrane. Each aquaporin-1 passes billions of water molecular per second and excludes other ions, which helps a cell to regulate its volume and osmotic pressure. The reasons why aquaporin-1 can achieve such a fast transport are its narrow pore size and hydrophobic residues which align in the channel inner surface.1 We are interested in seeking an artificial channel highly reminiscent of aquaporin-1.