Abstract
Ion channels are fundamental molecular devices in biological membrane and can be expressed by synthetic molecules mimicking their functions, which include rapid ionic flow across the membrane with ion selectivities as well as flux-control. Here reviewed are supramolecular as well as molecular artificial ion channels from totally synthetic sources. Amphiphilic ion pairs consisting of oligoether and hydrophobic units have been assembled in lipid bilayer membranes to afford single channel currents. Existence of several conductivity states reflected different assembly numbers. However, only one conductivity state was observed, when supramolecular channels with a controlled assembly number of ion pairs or macrocyclic molecular channels were introduced. All the artificial channels obtained hitherto gave preferences for cation permeation with respect to the anion. Macrocyclic resorcin [4] arene channel and oligoether supramolecules gave K+ selectivity over Na+. The flux control has been successful by introducing charges in the membrane phase to afford voltage dependence of open and closed times. Furthermore, the ionic currents were successfully controlled by photochemical isomerization of azo functionality in the supramolecular channel components.
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