Invariant ionic conductance in an atomically thin polar nanopore

Shengping Zhang; Haiou Zeng; Ningran Wu; Guodong Xue; Xiao Li; Anshul Saxena; Junhe Tong; Nianjie Liang; Zeyu Zhuang; Jing Yang; Narayana R. Aluru; Kaihui Liu; Bai Song; Luda Wang

arXiv · 2603.21827

Invariant ionic conductance in an atomically thin polar nanopore

Shengping Zhang·Haiou Zeng·Ningran Wu·Guodong Xue·Xiao Li·Anshul Saxena·Junhe Tong·Nianjie Liang·Zeyu Zhuang·Jing Yang·Narayana R. Aluru·Kaihui Liu·Bai Song·Luda Wang

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Abstract

Ion channels regulate many essential properties of biological cells, especially the membrane potential. Despite decades of efforts on artificial channels, it remains a great challenge to mimic the dipole potential-an indispensable constituent of the membrane potential, due to its angstrom-scale characteristic length. Here, we explore nanopores in monolayer molybdenum sulfide selenide (MoSSe) considering its intrinsic dipole and atomic thickness. Remarkably, an invariant ionic conductance was observed over salt concentrations spanning six orders of magnitude, distinct from all known conductance-concentration scaling laws and reminiscent of the current saturation in cell membranes at high concentrations. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed the fundamental role of the dipole-modulated dielectric properties of nanoconfined water. Our findings highlight an exotic conductance scaling law and open up a novel avenue for controlling ion transport in unprecedented ways.

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Shengping Zhang, Haiou Zeng, Ningran Wu, Guodong Xue, Xiao Li, Anshul Saxena, Junhe Tong, Nianjie Liang, Zeyu Zhuang, Jing Yang, Narayana R. Aluru, Kaihui Liu, Bai Song, Luda Wang. 2026-05-12. Invariant ionic conductance in an atomically thin polar nanopore. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.21827

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