A New Solid-state Nanochannel System for Nanoelectrochemistry at Confinements

Electrochemistry at confinement plays a significant impact on single entity analysis, efficient energy conversion, and nanofluidic transportation. Usually, the confinement is constructed by nanopore-structured materials. However, the physicochemical properties of function elements at inner walls of nanopore are inexplicit due to the limit of technology, which hinders the elegant modifications of nanopores and their related sophisticated applications. To address this issue, Xia and coworkers from China University of Geosciences developed a new solid-state nanochannel system modified with only function elements at outer surface. Explicit regulation of ion transport across this system was realized by the precise measurement of the physicochemical pro-perties of function elements at the outer surface, which was further supported by the numerical simulations. Furthermore, this novel system shows advantages in osmotic energy conversion and universal sensing of targets from ions to cells. The corresponding research has been published in Nature Communications and can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21507-7.