Active sieving across driven nanopores for tunable selectivity

Molecular separation traditionnally relies on sieving processes across passive nanoporous membranes. Here we explore theoretically the concept of non-equilibrium active sieving. We investigate a simple model for an active noisy nanopore, where gating - in terms of size or charge - is externally driven at a tunable frequency. Our analytical and numerical results unveil a rich sieving diagram in terms of the forced gating frequency. Unexpectedly, the separation ability is strongly increased as compared to its passive (zero frequency) counterpart. It points also to the possibility of tuning dynamically the osmotic pressure. Active separation outperforms passive sieving and represents a promising avenue for advanced filtration.
Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures