Solid-State nanopores as ion-channel for single molecule detection and ionic gating

Speaker
Denis Garoli
Affiliation
Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy), Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italy), Jiliang University, Hangzhou (China)
Date
2026-04-09
Time
14:30
Venue
ON-SITE: S3 Seminar Room, 3rd Floor, Physics Building ONLINE: https://www.nano.cnr.it/NanoColloquia
Host

Artificial intelligence is rapidly permeating modern technology, but its growth is  increasingly constrained by the costs of delivering power and removing heat. Neural computation offers a striking counterpoint, for it achieves sophisticated information  processing at exceptionally low energy by exploiting ionic flows and adaptive conductance. Inspired by the Hodgkin-Huxley view that function emerges from ion- transport dynamics, recent work has begun to implement memory and learning  directly in fluids, where ions simultaneously carry signals and encode internal device state. In this talk we will discuss the emerging landscape of fluidic ionic memristors, from soft, bioinspired materials to manufacturable solid-state nanofluidic architectures. In lipid bilayers, droplet networks, tissues and ionic polymers, electrical activity is intrinsically coupled to chemistry and mechanics, enabling plasticity across multiple  timescales. In rigid nanopores, nanochannels and angstrom-scale slits, the softness is transferred from the scaffold to the ionic degrees of freedom, where electric double-layer dynamics, concentration polarization and confinement-driven effects produce history-dependent transport in robust inorganic frameworks. Hybrid approaches integrate gels, brushes, particles, or biomolecules within microfabricated structures to combine stability with rich analogue dynamics. We conclude by outlining the key requirements for translation from reproducibility to scalable integration towards ionic  intelligence technologies.