Advanced Materials, Vol.25, No.6, 844-849, 2013
Optimizing Diffusive Transport Through a Synthetic Membrane Channel
Channel-facilitated transport is investigated by introducing a novel, synthetic model system at the microscale. Colloidal particle flux is increased beyond the limit of free diffusion by introducing an attractive and tunable binding potential created by holographic optical tweezers. The optimal potential depth enhances the diffusive current by a factor of three.
Keywords:membrane protein channels;channel-facilitated diffusion;holographic optical tweezers;microfluidics;colloids