Hybrid Solid-State Nanopores for engineer ion channels

Dynamic control of ion transport at the nanoscale is essential for advancing nanofluidic systems toward applications in biosensing, energy conversion, and iontronic computing. Conventional solid-state nanopores, while mechanically robust and geometrically tunable, are fundamentally passive and lack the adaptive functionality of biological ion channels. This thesis explores three hybrid strategies that transform passive nanopores into actively programmable ionic devices by integrating responsive polymers, two-dimensional materials, and chemically reactive electrolytes. First, thermoplasmonic gating is realized by functionalizing SiN nanopores with the thermoresponsive polymer PNIPAM and a plasmonic bullseye structure. Localized laser heating induces reversible polymer collapse, achieving an on/off ratio up to 60 and millisecond switching times, with spatial selectivity enabling multi-pore logic operations. Second, an electrically gated MoS2/SiN hybrid nanochannel is developed, where gate voltage modulates surface charge asymmetry to control ion conductance, rectification. The nanochannel also show potential in scalable osmotic power generation (power density up to ~33,700 W/m²) with minimized ion concentration polarization effect, and prolonged protein translocation by leveraging interactions between unfolded bovine serum albumin and MoS2 sulfur vacancies. Third, a chemically gated mechanism is introduced based on voltage-controlled precipitation and dissolution of metal phosphates inside SiN nanopores. This approach yields extreme rectification ratios exceeding 40,000, history-dependent conductance, and memristive switching with sub-nanowatt power consumption. In-situ surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy provides direct vibrational evidence of reversible precipitate formation within the pore. Together, these hybrid nanopore systems demonstrate progressively increasing levels of transport programmability—from externally triggered gating to continuously tunable electrostatic control and finally to two-teiminal memory device. The results establish potential routines towards smart nanofluidic devices, iontronic circuits, and neuromorphic computing platforms.