Memristive Response and Capacitive Spiking in Aqueous Ion Transport through Two-Dimensional Nanopore Arrays

Published

January 11, 2024

Author(s)

Yechan Noh, Alex Smolyanitsky

Abstract

In living organisms, information is processed in interconnected symphonies of ionic currents spiking through protein ion channels. As a result of dynamic switching of their conductive states, ion channels exhibit a variety of current–voltage nonlinearities and memory effects. Fueled by the promise of computing architectures entirely different from von Neumann, recent attempts to identify and harness similar phenomena in artificial nanofluidic environments focused on demonstrating analogue circuit elements with memory. Here we explore aqueous ionic transport through two-dimensional (2D) membranes featuring arrays of ion-trapping crown-ether-like pores. We demonstrate that for aqueous salts featuring ions with different ion–pore binding affinities, memristive effects emerge through coupling between the time-delayed state of the system and its transport properties. We also demonstrate a nanopore array that behaves as a capacitor with a strain-tunable built-in barrier, yielding behaviors ranging from current spiking to an ohmic response. By focusing on the illustrative underlying mechanisms, we demonstrate that realistically observable memory effects may be achieved in nanofluidic systems featuring crown-porous 2D membranes.

Citation

Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

Volume

15

Issue

3

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c03156

Local Download

Keywords

nanofluidics, memristor, memcapacitor, 2D, ion transport, neuromorphic, simulation, molecular dynamics

Citation

Noh, Y. and Smolyanitsky, A. (2024), Memristive Response and Capacitive Spiking in Aqueous Ion Transport through Two-Dimensional Nanopore Arrays, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c03156, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=956701 (Accessed October 9, 2025)