金属錯体多面体を用いた人工イオンチャネルの開発

抄録

Synthesizing of new molecules that emulate biological ion channels is a significant challenge for chemists to tackle by designing highly complex molecules or molecular assembly. These studies also would lead to developing a new tool to explore sub–cellular activity. Here we demonstrate a new application of porous molecule, so–called metal– organic polyhedra (MOPs) that possess a nanosized space inside a molecule, as synthetic ion channles, by embedding them into liquid bilayer membranes. The characteristic geometry of an Archimedean cuboctahedron of MOPs showed two distinct ion conductance states because triangular and square apertures in the cuboctahedron independently work as ion transporting pathways. By changing the aliphatic chain length introduced on the periphery of the cuboctahedron, we identify that the rotational dynamics of the cuboctahedron regulates the open pore time of each conductance state through distinct apertures and the switching between them.