Single-Molecule Discrimination of Saccharides Using Carbon Nitride Nanopores.

Guo, Linru; Han, Yida; Yang, Hong; Fu, Jie; Li, Wang; Xie, Ran; Zhang, Yuanjian; Wang, Kang et al. · Nano Lett · 2024

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Structural complexity brings a huge challenge to the analysis of sugar chains. As a single-molecule sensor, nanopores have the potential to provide fingerprint information on saccharides. Traditionally, direct single-molecule saccharide detection with nanopores is hampered by their small size and weak affinity. Here, a carbon nitride nanopore device is developed to discern two types of trisaccharide molecules (LeA<sub>pN</sub> and SLeC<sub>pN</sub>) with minor structural differences. The resolution of LeA<sub>pN</sub> and SLeC<sub>pN</sub> in the mixture reaches 0.98, which has never been achieved in solid-state nanopores so far. Monosaccharide (GlcNAc<sub>pN</sub>) and disaccharide (LacNAc<sub>pN</sub>) can also be discriminated using this system, indicating that the versatile carbon nitride nanopores possess a monosaccharide-level resolution. This study demonstrates that the carbon nitride nanopores have the potential for conducting structure analysis on single-molecule saccharides.