Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
Bioinspired Nanoscale Water Channel
and its Potential Applications
Haiping Fang, Chunlei Wang, Rongzheng Wan, Hangjun Lu, Yusong Tu,
and Peng Xiu
Abstract
The dynamics of water molecules confined in nanochannels is of great
importance for designing novel molecular devices/machines/sensors, which have
wide applications in nanotechnology, such as water desalination, chemical sep-
aration, sensing. In this chapter, inspired by the aquaporins, which are proteins
embedded in the cell membrane that regulate the flow of water but stop the protons,
we will discuss the mechanism of water channel gating and water channel pumping,
where water molecules form single-filed structure. The single-filed water molecules
can also serve as molecular devices for signal transmission, conversion, and multi-
plication. Moreover, the water in the channel may have great potential applications
in designing the lab-in-tube to controllable manipulation of biomolecules.
1.1
Introduction
With the development of nanoscience and nanotechnologies, particularly the suc-
cessful fabrications of various nanochannels, the study of the water permeation
across the nanoscale channels has become conceivable. The understanding of the
H. Fang (
)•C.Wang•R.Wan
Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
No.2019 Baojia Road, P.O. Box 800-204, Shanghai, 201800 China
e-mail:
fanghaiping@sinap.ac.cn
;
wangchunlei@sinap.ac.cn
;
wanrongzheng@sinap.ac.cn
H. Lu
Department of Physics, Zhejiang Normanl University, Jinhua, 321004 China
e-mail:
zjlhjun@zjnu.cn
Y. Tu
Institute of Systems Biology, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444 China
e-mail:
tuyusong@gmail.com
P. X i u
Bio-X Lab, Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027 China
e-mail:
meihuazhuang@163.com
