Fluorofoldamer-Based Salt- and Proton-Rejecting Artificial Water Channels for Ultrafast Water Transport

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c01137
• Publication Date: 2022-06-08T15:09:29Z
• Authors: Jie Shen; Arundhati Roy; Himanshu Joshi; Laxmicharan Samineni; Ruijuan Ye; Yu-Ming Tu; Woochul Song; Matthew Skiles; Manish Kumar; Aleksei Aksimentiev; Huaqiang Zeng
• Keywords: Water Transport

Here, we report on a novel class of fluorofoldamer-based artificial water channels (AWCs) that combines excellent transport rate and selectivity with structural simplicity robustness. Produced by facile one-pot copolymerization reaction under mild conditions, the best-performing channel (AWC 1) is an n-C8H17-decorated foldamer nanotube average length 2.8 nm pore diameter 5.2 Å. AWC 1 demonstrates ultrafast conduction 1.4 × 1010 H2O/s per channel, outperforming archetypal biological aquaporin 1, while excluding salts (i.e., NaCl KCl) protons. Unique to this channels, inwardly facing C(sp2)-F atoms being most electronegative in periodic table are proposed as critical enabling superselective properties decreasing channel's cavity enhancing wall smoothness via reducing intermolecular forces molecules or hydrated ions.