The ability to tune ionic permeation across nanoscale pores profoundly impacts diverse fields from nanofluidic computing to drug delivery. Here, we take advantage of complex formation between crown ethers and dissolved metal ions to demonstrate graphene-based ion channels highly sensitive to externally applied lattice strain. We perform extensive room-temperature molecular dynamics simulations of the effects of tensile lattice strain on ion permeation across graphene-embedded crown ether pores. Our findings suggest the first instance of solid-state ion channels with an exponential permeation sensitivity to strain, yielding an order of magnitude ion current increase for 2% of isotropic lattice strain. Significant permeation tuning is also shown to be achievable with anisotropic strains. Finally, we demonstrate strain-controllable ion sieving in salt mixtures. The observed high mechanosensitivity is shown to arise from strain-induced control over the competition between ion–crown and ion–solvent interactions, mediated by the atomic thinness of graphene.

调节离子在纳米级孔中的渗透的能力深刻影响着从纳米流体计算到药物输送的各个领域。在这里，我们利用冠醚与溶解的金属离子之间的复杂形成来证明对外部施加的晶格应变高度敏感的基于石墨烯的离子通道。我们进行了广泛的室温分子动力学模拟，研究了拉伸晶格应变对跨石墨烯嵌入冠醚孔的离子渗透的影响。我们的发现表明，固态离子通道对应变具有指数渗透敏感性的第一种情况，对于各向同性晶格应变，当离子电流增加2％时，离子电流将增加一个数量级。各向异性应变也显示出明显的渗透调谐是可以实现的。最后，我们展示了盐混合物中的应变可控离子筛。观察到的高机械敏感性是由于应变诱导的对石墨烯原子薄度介导的离子-冠相互作用与离子-溶剂相互作用之间的竞争的控制而产生的。