ARTIFICIAL CELLS ALLOW ION ENTRY POROUS INORGANIC CAPSULES SERVE AS MODELS FOR BIOLOGICAL ION-TRANSPORT PROCESSES

摘要

Chemists in Germany have constructed artificial cells with stoppered pores that open for the uptake of calcium ions and then close.The process resembles the functioning of gated calcium channels in biological cell membranes.The cells-spherical nanoscale polyoxomolybdate clusters-were constructed by Achim Miiller and coworkers at the University of Bielefeld.Each cell has 20 Mo_9O_9 pores that are noncovalently bonded to protonated urea ions that act as stoppers.