Modulation of Ionic Current Rectification in Ultra-Short Conical Nanopores

TL;DR

This study uses finite element simulations to demonstrate how ionic current rectification in ultra-short conical nanopores can be tuned by controlling surface charges, revealing mechanisms and design principles for nanofluidic devices.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of charge effects on ICR in sub-200 nm conical nanopores, expanding understanding beyond longer pores and guiding nanopore design.

Findings

Charged inner surfaces induce significant ICR and ion concentration polarization.

Surface tip charge causes intra-pore ionic enrichment and depletion, affecting ICR.

Diverse ICR ratios from ~2 to ~170 are achievable with different surface charge configurations.

Abstract

Nanopores that exhibit ionic current rectification (ICR) behave like diodes, such that they transport ions more efficiently in one direction than the other. Conical nanopores have been shown to rectify ionic current, but only those with at least 500 nm in length exhibit significant ICR. Here, through the finite element method, we show how ICR of conical nanopores with length below 200 nm can be tuned by controlling individual charged surfaces i.e. inner pore surface (surface_inner), and exterior pore surfaces on the tip and base side (surface_tip and surface_base). The charged surface_inner and surface_tip can induce obvious ICR individually, while the effects of the charged surface_base on ICR can be ignored. The fully charged surface_inner alone could render the nanopore counterion-selective and induces significant ion concentration polarization in the tip region, which causes reverse ICR compared to nanopores with all surface charged. In addition, the direction and degree of rectification can be further tuned by the depth of the charged surface_inner. When considering the exterior membrane surface only, the charged surface_tip causes intra-pore ionic enrichment and depletion under opposite biases which results in significant ICR. Its effective region is within ~40 nm beyond the tip orifice. We also found that individual charged parts of the pore system contributed to ICR in an additive way due to the additive effect on the ion concentration regulation along the pore axis. With various combinations of fully/partially charged surface_inner and surface_tip, diverse ICR ratios from ~2 to ~170 can be achieved. Our findings shed light on the mechanism of ionic current rectification in ultra-short conical nanopores, and provide a useful guide to the design and modification of ultra-short conical nanopores in ionic circuits and nanofluidic sensors.