Ionic transport through sub-10 nm diameter hydrophobic high-aspect ratio nanopores: experiment, theory and simulation.

ABSTRACT: Fundamental understanding of ionic transport at the nanoscale is essential for developing biosensors based on nanopore technology and new generation high-performance nanofiltration membranes for separation and purification applications. We study here ionic transport through single putatively neutral hydrophobic nanopores with high aspect ratio (of length L = 6 μm with diameters ranging from 1 to 10 nm) and with a well controlled cylindrical geometry. We develop a detailed hybrid mesoscopic theoretical approach for the electrolyte conductivity inside nanopores, which considers explicitly ion advection by electro-osmotic flow and possible flow slip at the pore surface. By fitting the experimental conductance data we show that for nanopore diameters greater than 4 nm a constant weak surface c

SUBMITTER: Balme S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4453161 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature