Photo ‐Driven Ion Directional Transport across Artificial Ion Channels: Band Engineering of WS2 via Peptide Modification

The asymmetric peptide-WS2 membrane (AP-WS2M) could realize subtly tunning of photo-driven ion transport via the designed built-in photovoltaic motive force of type II band alignment in a bioinspired nanofluidic device. With proper system configurations, the AP-WS2M could realize the photo-driven fivefold anti-gradient ion transport andvis-light enhanced osmotic energy conversion. AbstractBiological photo-responsive ion channels play important roles in the important metabolic processes of living beings. To mimic the unique functions of biological prototypes, the transition metal dichalcogenides, owing to their excellent mechanical, electrical, and optical properties, are already used for artificial intelligent channel constructions. However, there remain challenges to building artificial bio-semiconductor nanochannels with finely tuned band gaps for accurately simulating or regulating ion transport. Here, two well-designed peptides are employed for the WS2 nanosheets functionalization with the sequences of PFPFPFPFC and DFDFDFDFC (PFC and DFC; P: proline, D: aspartate, and F: phenylalanine) through cysteine (Cys, C) linker, and an asymmetric peptide-WS2 membrane (AP-WS2M) could be obtained via self-assembly of peptide-WS2 nanosheets. The AP-WS2M could realize the photo-driven anti-gradient ion transport andvis-light enhanced osmotic energy conversion by well-designed working patterns. The photo-driven ion transport mechanism stems from a built-in photovoltaic motive force wit...

Source: Small - April 18, 2024 Category: Nanotechnology Authors: Xiaoyan Jin, Yabing Zeng, Min Zhou, Di Quan, Meijuan Jia, Biying Liu, Kaicong Cai, Lei Kang, Xiang ‐Yu Kong, Liping Wen, Lei Jiang Tags: Research Article Source Type: research