Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 24, 2026
11:24
Optimized Fabrication Procedure for High-Quality Graphene-based Moiré Superlattice Devices
Published on: July 11, 2025
17.2K
Ion transport in complex layered graphene-based membranes with tuneable interlayer spacing.
Chi Cheng1, Gengping Jiang1, Christopher J Garvey2
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia.
Science Advances
|March 3, 2016
Summary
Investigating ion transport in nanoporous carbon is challenging. This study uses combined experiments and simulations to model graphene membranes, revealing how structural imperfections impact ion diffusion and electrokinetic transport across various nanochannel sizes.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
- Physical Chemistry
Background:
- Investigating ion transport in nanoporous materials is complex due to inherent structural disorder.
- Understanding nanoconfined ion transport is crucial for applications in energy storage and separation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a robust model for describing ion transport in complex, layered graphene membranes.
- To establish a quantitative relationship between membrane structure and nanoconfined ion transport properties.
Main Methods:
- Combined experimental investigation and computational simulation.
- Analysis of concentration-driven ion diffusion through graphene membranes with tuneable interlayer spacing.
- Correlation of experimental data with structural modeling.
Main Results:
- A representative structural model for layered graphene membranes was constructed.
- The significant impact of structural imperfections on ion transport was revealed.
- Scaling behaviors of diffusive and electrokinetic ion transport were analyzed across channel sizes from 10 nm down to sub-nanometer.
Conclusions:
- Complex porous systems exhibit distinct ion transport phenomena compared to simple nanofluidic systems.
- Graphene-based cascading nanochannels offer unique transport characteristics.
- Structural imperfections critically influence ion transport in nanoporous membranes.
Related Concept Videos
01:19Membrane Asymmetry Regulating Transporters
7.9K
Enzymes like flippase, floppase, and scramblase transfer phospholipids from one layer to another in the membrane, thereby affecting membrane asymmetry.
Flippase
Eukaryotic flippases are type-IV P-type ATPases or P4-ATPases belonging to P-type ATPase family proteins that are membrane-bound pumps involved in the ATP-mediated transport of ions and molecules across the membrane. Flippases flip specific phospholipids from the outer to the inner leaflet of a membrane. All P4-ATPases have one...
Flippase
Eukaryotic flippases are type-IV P-type ATPases or P4-ATPases belonging to P-type ATPase family proteins that are membrane-bound pumps involved in the ATP-mediated transport of ions and molecules across the membrane. Flippases flip specific phospholipids from the outer to the inner leaflet of a membrane. All P4-ATPases have one...
7.9K
01:17Pore Transport and Ion-Pair Transport
1.5K
Pore transport and ion-pair formation are critical mechanisms for the absorption and distribution of drugs in the body.
Pore transport, also known as convective transport, is a process where small molecules like urea, water, and sugars rapidly cross cell membranes as though there were channels or pores in the membrane. Although direct microscopic evidence is limited but the concept of pores or channels is widely accepted based on physiological evidence. Despite the lack of direct...
Pore transport, also known as convective transport, is a process where small molecules like urea, water, and sugars rapidly cross cell membranes as though there were channels or pores in the membrane. Although direct microscopic evidence is limited but the concept of pores or channels is widely accepted based on physiological evidence. Despite the lack of direct...
1.5K
01:44The Significance of Membrane Transport
44.3K
The transport of solutes across the cell membrane is essential for metabolic processes, like maintaining cell size and volume, generating the action potential, exchanging nutrients and gases, etc. Membrane transport can be either passive or active. It can be simple diffusion, facilitated, or mediated transport aided by transport proteins such as transporters and channels.
Transporters facilitate either an active or passive movement of solutes. They can allow a single-molecule transport down its...
Transporters facilitate either an active or passive movement of solutes. They can allow a single-molecule transport down its...
44.3K
01:24Protein Diffusion in the Membrane
6.2K
Proteins show rotational as well as lateral diffusion across the membrane. The lateral diffusion of proteins was confirmed through the cell fusion experiment where mouse and human cells were fused, resulting in hybrid cells. When the human and mouse cells fused, the specific membrane proteins on human and mouse cells were marked with the red and green-fluorescent markers, respectively. Initially, the red and green fluorescence was located on the respective hemisphere of the cell. As time...
6.2K
01:15Mechanisms of Membrane-bending
3.7K
The living membranes are flexible due to their fluid mosaic nature; however, their bending into different shapes is an active process regulated by specific lipids and proteins. The membrane bending can be transient as seen in vesicles or stable for a long time as in microvilli. Cells regulate the size, location, and duration of the membrane curvature.
Membrane bending can happen due to intrinsic changes in lipid composition or extrinsic association with different proteins. The proteins involved...
Membrane bending can happen due to intrinsic changes in lipid composition or extrinsic association with different proteins. The proteins involved...
3.7K