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Molecular rotors as a class of generally highly active ion transporters

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Abstract

We describe here a class of unconventional ion transporters, molecular rotors that transport ions through a rotating function rather than via traditional carrier or channel mechanisms. Mimicking macroscopic rotors, these molecular rotors consist of three modularly tunable components, i.e., a membrane-anchoring stator, a crown ether-containing rotator for ion binding and transport, and a triple bond-based axle that allows the rotator to freely rotate around the stator in the lipid membrane. Lipid bilayer experiments reveal the generally high ability of all molecular rotors in promoting the highly efficient transmembrane K+ flux (EC50 values = 0.49–1.37 mol% relative to lipid). While molecular rotors differing only in the ion-binding unit exhibit similar ion transport activities, those differing in the rotator’s length display activity differences by up to 174%.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Northwestern Polytechnical University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Frontier Research Center for Multidisciplinary Sciences, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China

    Jie Shen, Ruijuan Ye & Huaqiang Zeng

  2. Temasek Polytechnic, 21 Tampines Avenue 1, Singapore, 529757, Singapore

    Joan Jia Ying Han

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  1. Jie Shen
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  2. Joan Jia Ying Han
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  3. Ruijuan Ye
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  4. Huaqiang Zeng
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Correspondence to Huaqiang Zeng.

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Shen, J., Han, J.J.Y., Ye, R. et al. Molecular rotors as a class of generally highly active ion transporters. Sci. China Chem. 64, 2154–2160 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-021-1082-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-021-1082-7

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