A biological porin engineered into a molecular, nanofluidic diode

Abstract

We changed the nonrectifying biological porin OmpF into a nanofluidic diode. To that end, we engineered a pore that possesses two spatially separated selectivity filters of opposite charge where either cations or anions accumulate. The observed current inhibition under applied reverse bias voltage reflects, we believe, the creation of a zone depleted of charge carriers, in a sense very similar to what happens at the np junction of a semiconductor device.