Modulation of electrophoresis, electroosmosis and diffusion for electrical transport of proteins through a solid-state nanopore

Nanopore probing of molecular level transport of proteins is strongly influenced by electrolyte type, concentration, and solution pH. As a result, electrolyte chemistry and applied voltage are critical for protein transport and impact, for example, capture rate (C(R)), transport mechanism (i.e., electrophoresis, electroosmosis or diffusion), and 3D conformation (e.g., chaotropic vs. kosmotropic effects). In this study, we explored these using 0.5–4 M LiCl and KCl electrolytes with holo-human serum transferrin (hSTf) protein as the model protein in both low (±50 mV) and high (±400 mV) electric field regimes. Unlike in KCl, where events were purely electrophoretic, the transport in LiCl transitioned from electrophoretic to electroosmotic with decreasing salt concentration while intermediate concentrations (i.e., 2 M and 2.5 M) were influenced by diffusion. Segregating diffusion-limited capture rate (R(diff)) into electrophoretic (R(diff,EP)) and electroosmotic (R(diff,EO)) components provided an approach to calculate the zeta-potential of hSTf (ζ(hSTf)) with the aid of C(R) and zeta potential of the nanopore surface (ζ(pore)) with (ζ(pore)–ζ(hSTf)) governing the transport mechanism. Scrutinization of the conventional excluded volume model revealed its shortcomings in capturing surface contributions and a new model was then developed to fit the translocation characteristics of proteins.