1.D.260. The Artificial Bottlebrush Polymer Channel (ABPC) Family
Bottlebrush polymers as accessible and versatile molecular scaffolds for developing efficient artificial ion channels. Adopting the bottlebrush configuration enhances ion transport activity of channels compared to their linear analogs. Matching the structure of lipid bilayers, the bottlebrush channel with a hydrophilic-hydrophobic-hydrophilic triblock architecture exhibited the highest activity among the series. Functionalized with urea groups, these channels displayed high anion selectivity. Lin et al. 2024 showed that the transport properties could be fine-tuned by modifying the chemistry of ion binding sites, thus highlighting the importance of polymer topology control in channel design, It also reveals the potential for further developing bottlebrush channels with customized features and diverse functionalities.