Cooperative effect of pH-dependent ion transport within two symmetric-structured nanochannels

  • Zheyi Meng
  • , Yang Chen
  • , Xiulin Li
  • , Yanglei Xu
  • , Jin Zhai*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A novel and simple design is introduced to construct bichannel nanofluid diodes by combining two poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) films with columnar nanochannel arrays varying in size or in surface charge. This type of bichannel device performs obvious ion current rectification, and the pH-dependent tunability and degree of rectification can be improved by histidine modification. The origin of the ion current rectification and its pH-dependent tunability are attributed to the cooperative effect of the two columnar half-channels and the applied bias on the mobile ions. As a result of surface groups on the bichannel being charged with different polarities or degrees at different pH values, the function of the bichannel device can be converted from a nanofluid diode to a normal nanochannel or to a reverse diode.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7709-7716
Number of pages8
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume7
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Apr 2015

Keywords

  • PET film
  • bichannel device
  • biomimetics
  • columnar nanochannel
  • ion transport
  • nanofluid diode

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