Temperature-Dependent Transport of Charged Amino Acids in Gold Plasmonic Nanopores

Understanding and distinguishing amino acids at the single-molecule level is crucial for protein sequencing and disease diagnosis. However, this task remains challenging due to the structural diversity and uniqueness of amino acids. This study employs all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to systematically explore the feasibility of identifying five charged amino acids using thermally modulated gold plasmonic nanopores. The results demonstrate temperature-dependent transport characteristics, where each amino acid exhibits distinct relative conductivity blocking characteristics. As the temperature increases, the interaction time between the ions and the amino acids decreases, leading to a reduction in the blocking amplitude. Additionally, the translocation study indicates that enhanced van der Waals interactions under higher temperature prolong the dwell time of short peptides in the nanopore. This finding is significant for optimizing thermal regulation to aid in the distinction identification of amino acids. Overall, our findings offer new insights and applications for the optimal design of gold plasmonic nanopore sensors.