Nanowerk August 17, 2021
Researchers in France report that devices made of a single layer of water transporting ions within graphene nanoslits have the same transmission capacity as a neuron. They developed an analytical theory, backed up by molecular dynamics simulations, that predicts strongly nonlinear effects in ion transport across quasi–two-dimensional slits. They showed that under an electric field, ions assemble into elongated clusters, whose slow dynamics result in hysteretic conduction. The memristor effect, can be harnessed to build an elementary neuron. As a proof of concept, they carried out molecular simulations of two nanofluidic slits that reproduced the Hodgkin-Huxley model and observed spontaneous emission of voltage spikes characteristic of neuromorphic activity…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE