Mechanosensitive ion transport in hexagonal boron nitride nanopores

In biological systems, mechanical strain can trigger strong changes in ion conductance and signaling, yet in synthetic nanopores, achieving similar mechanosensitive behavior has been a significant challenge. Here, we demonstrate that subtle mechanical strain can induce strong modulation of ionic current in small hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) nanopores. Using hydrostatic pressure to apply small lateral strain to free-standing single-layer h-BN membranes featuring triangular sub-1-nm nanopores, we observed ion conductance modulation exceeding 1 30% under 0.5% strain. We attribute this response to the strain-dependent interplay of ionpore and ion-water interactions within the nanopore. The measured mechanosensitivity values also agreed strongly with those obtained from modeling of strain-tunable transport in ensembles of h-BN nanopores. These findings establish a framework for developing strain-responsive membranes for applications in molecular separations and sensing.

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Publication Details

Journal
ChemRxiv
Published
2026-11-06
DOI
https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv.15011789/v1
Primary Topic
Nanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies
Type
preprint
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preprint

Mechanosensitive ion transport in hexagonal boron nitride nanopores

Dana O. Byrne, Alex Thomas Hall, Sanjin Marion, John Cumings et al.
2 links
ChemRxiv
Nanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies
preprint

Mechanosensitive ion transport in hexagonal boron nitride nanopores

Dana O. Byrne, Alex Thomas Hall, Sanjin Marion, John Cumings, Aleksandr Noy, Frances I. Allen, Aleksandra Rađenović, Mohit Saraswat, Yechan Noh, Alex Smolyanitsky, Julia Chung, Karina Damberg, Camille A. Violet
preprint en

Abstract

In biological systems, mechanical strain can trigger strong changes in ion conductance and signaling, yet in synthetic nanopores, achieving similar mechanosensitive behavior has been a significant challenge. Here, we demonstrate that subtle mechanical strain can induce strong modulation of ionic current in small hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) nanopores. Using hydrostatic pressure to apply small lateral strain to free-standing single-layer h-BN membranes featuring triangular sub-1-nm nanopores, we observed ion conductance modulation exceeding 1 30% under 0.5% strain. We attribute this response to the strain-dependent interplay of ionpore and ion-water interactions within the nanopore. The measured mechanosensitivity values also agreed strongly with those obtained from modeling of strain-tunable transport in ensembles of h-BN nanopores. These findings establish a framework for developing strain-responsive membranes for applications in molecular separations and sensing.

ChemRxiv
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (US), National Institute of Standards and Technology (US), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US), University of California, Merced (US), University of California System (US), IMEC (BE), Molecular Foundry (US), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH), University of Maryland, College Park (US), University of California, Berkeley (US)
Nanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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