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Updated: Jan 15, 2026

A Proteoliposome-Based Efflux Assay to Determine Single-molecule Properties of Cl- Channels and Transporters
Published on: April 20, 2015
Entropic Modulation of Divalent Cation Transport
Yechan Noh1, Demian Riccardi2, Alex Smolyanitsky2
1National Institute of Standards and Technology, University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Physics, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA and Applied Chemicals and Materials Division, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA.
None:
Aqueous cations permeate subnanoscale pores by crossing free energy barriers dominated by competing enthalpic contributions from transiently decreased ion-solvent and increased ion-pore electrostatic interactions. This commonly accepted view is rooted in the studies of monovalent cation transport. Divalent cations, however, have significantly higher desolvation costs, requiring considerably larger pores to enable retention of the first hydration shell and subsequently transport. We show that this scenario gives rise to a strong enthalpy-entropy competition. Specifically, the first hydration shell is shown to undergo rotational ordering inside the pore, resulting in a tight transition state. Our results shed light on the basic mechanisms of transport barrier formation for aqueous divalent cations permeating nanoporous 2D membranes.
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