Surface-charge governed ionic blockade in angstrom-scale latent-track channels

Abstract

When channels are scaled down to the size of hydrated ions, Coulomb interactions are enhanced in confinement, resulting in new phenomena. Herein, we found blockade of ionic transport in latent-track angstrom-scale channels governed by surface charge, fundamentally different from Coulomb blockade or Wien effects. The channels are non-conductive at low voltage, blocked by cations bound at the surface in confinement; however, they change to conductive with increasing voltage due to the release of bound ions. The increase in surface charge density gradually causes the conduction to be ohmic. Using Kramers' escape framework, we rationalized an analytical equation to describe the experimental results, uncovering new fundamental insights into ion transport in the smallest channels.