Understanding and predicting nanopore transport by polymer chain composition design for ionic circuits

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Annette Andrieu-Brunsen
• Subject Area: Polymer Materials
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 524872189

The integration of technological nanopores into complex systems, such as ionic circuits for chemical information processing, remains a challenge but is envisioned to allow signal amplification and feedback loops and with this the design of a new generation of autonomous “smart” devices for example in sensing. In synthetic biology, at the interface between biology and electrical engineering, cell-free circuits are designed to simulate this communication and feedback loops between compartments. Examples addressing the integration of technological (polymer functionalized) nanopores into circuits exist but these remain scarce and simple. To advance ionic circuit design with technological nanopores, selective, directed and rate modulated (concentration-time profiles) transport is a key element. Taking biological pores, their transport performance and their role in communication between cellular compartments as inspiration, technological pores need to advance with respect to precision in nanopore functionalization and systematic understanding of all phenomena occurring within the pore at the molecular length scale. Due to the relevant length scale of a few nanometers, and the highly dynamic phenomena occurring within nanopores systematic understanding of the structure-property relationship and predictive nanopore and transport design can only be achieved by an approach that fully interdigitates experiment and modeling. The proposed project will generate optimized nanopore design strategies going beyond existing responsive homopolymer functionalization especially considering monomer combinations, polymer chain composition design, and local polymer arrangement. The polymer composition and arrangement regulate charge, polarity, and with this transport selectivity and kinetics. The proposed project will interdigitate i) the latest experimental nanopore functionalization strategies applying controlled polymerizations to combine unpolar, charge-regulating, and ligand binding monomers, with ii) the latest developments in molecular theory on transport of polymer functionalized nanopores to spatially resolve, understand, predict and experimentally control all relevant processes and their interplay within a nanopore including polymer conformational changes, charge distribution, charge regulation, polarity, and ligand binding as well as ion distribution within a nanopore. The insights gained from a strong coupling of nanopore functionalization and molecular modeling will enable to define design criteria for selective, directed transport with concentration-time profile control, an essential tool for technological nanopore-based ionic circuits. The design criteria will be directly introduced into an optimized experimental nanopore functionalization. The developed structure-property relationship will be used to build up ionic circuits for sensing in a potential follow-up project.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: USA
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Igal Szleifer