Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 15, 2026
11:55
Membrane Transport Processes Analyzed by a Highly Parallel Nanopore Chip System at Single Protein Resolution
Published on: August 16, 2016
12.2K
Molecular transport through capillaries made with atomic-scale precision.
B Radha1, A Esfandiar1, F C Wang2
1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
Nature
|September 8, 2016
Summary
Researchers fabricated atomically precise nanochannels using van der Waals assembly. These smooth, narrow capillaries enable ultra-fast water transport, opening new possibilities in nanofluidics and materials science.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
- Physical Chemistry
Background:
- Nanometre-scale pores and capillaries are crucial in nature and technology.
- Fabricating artificial nanocapillaries with precise dimensions is challenging due to surface roughness.
- Nanofluidics research is advancing with new fabrication capabilities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a method for fabricating narrow, smooth nanocapillaries with atomic-scale precision.
- To investigate water transport properties in these precisely controlled nanochannels.
- To explore the potential of van der Waals assembly for creating tunable nanostructures.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing van der Waals assembly with atomically flat sheets (graphene) and layered two-dimensional crystals as spacers.
- Precisely controlling the number of layers in the spacers to define channel height with atomic precision.
- Characterizing water transport through channels ranging from one to several dozen atomic planes in height.
Main Results:
- Achieved fabrication of smooth capillaries with dimensions controlled to ångström precision.
- Observed unexpectedly fast water flow (up to 1 m/s) attributed to high capillary pressures and large slip lengths.
- Noted enhanced flow in channels accommodating few water layers, linked to increased structural order in nanoconfined water.
Conclusions:
- Van der Waals assembly provides a powerful route to create nanocapillaries with tunable dimensions and controlled properties.
- The fabricated structures offer a platform for fundamental studies of molecular transport in nanoconfined environments.
- This technology enables the design of novel devices for nanofluidics and beyond, utilizing a wide range of atomically flat materials.
Related Concept Videos
01:16Facilitated Diffusion
1.5K
The plasma membrane, a critical structure in cellular biology, houses an array of transporters, or carrier proteins, interspersed within its lipid bilayer. These proteins play a crucial role in solute transport through facilitated diffusion, a form of passive diffusion that uses transporters to move the molecules across the membrane.
In this process, substrates such as organic compounds and ions interact with a transporter on one side, triggering conformational changes in proteins that enable...
In this process, substrates such as organic compounds and ions interact with a transporter on one side, triggering conformational changes in proteins that enable...
1.5K
01:24Cellular Membranes and Drug Transport
2.0K
Drugs must traverse multiple biological barriers, such as multi-layered skin, single-layered intestinal epithelium, and the plasma membrane, to reach their target sites within the body. The plasma membrane, a highly structured composite of phospholipids, carbohydrates, and proteins, is the cell's protective boundary, facilitating selective substance exchange.
Phospholipids arrange themselves into a bilayer, with hydrophilic heads oriented outward and hydrophobic tails facing inward.
Phospholipids arrange themselves into a bilayer, with hydrophilic heads oriented outward and hydrophobic tails facing inward.
2.0K
01:20Capillaries and Their Types
8.7K
Capillaries, a crucial constituent of the circulatory system, are diminutive vessels with a diameter between 5–10 micrometers, accommodating perfusion to the tissues through the phenomenon known as microcirculation. Through their permeable walls, consisting of an endothelial layer ensconced by a basement membrane and sporadically dispersed smooth muscle fibers, the exchange of substances between the blood and the interstitial fluid becomes plausible. Variance in wall composition exists,...
8.7K
01:28Capillary Exchange
12.2K
The cardiovascular system's chief role is to disseminate gases, nutrients, waste, and other substances to the body's cells. Small molecules like gases, lipids, and lipid-soluble substances directly diffuse through capillary wall endothelial cell membranes. Glucose, amino acids, and ions, including sodium, potassium, calcium, and chloride, use transporters for facilitated diffusion via membrane-specific channels. Glucose, ions, and bigger molecules may also pass through intercellular...
12.2K
01:19Facilitated Transport
155.3K
The chemical and physical properties of plasma membranes cause them to be selectively permeable. Since plasma membranes have both hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions, substances need to be able to transverse both regions. The hydrophobic area of membranes repels substances such as charged ions. Therefore, such substances need special membrane proteins to cross a membrane successfully. In facilitated transport, also known as facilitated diffusion, molecules and ions travel across a...
155.3K
01:44The Significance of Membrane Transport
43.8K
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...
43.8K