Coacervate-pore complexes for selective molecular transport and dynamic reconfiguration.

Abstract

Despite surging interests on liquid-state coacervates and condensates, confinement within solid-state pores for selective permeation remains an unexplored area. Drawing inspiration from nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), we design and construct coacervate-pore complexes (CPCs) with regulatable permeability. We demonstrate universal CPC formation across 19 coacervate systems and 5 pore types, where capillarity drives the spontaneous imbibition of coacervate droplets into dispersed or interconnected pores. CPCs regulate through-pore transport by forming a fluidic network that modulates guest molecule permeability based on guest-coacervate affinity, mimicking NPC selectivity. While solid constructs of NPC mimicries are limited by spatial fixation of polymer chains, CPCs of a liquid nature feature dynamic healing and rapid phase transitioning for permeability recovery and regulation, respectively. Looking forward, we expect the current work to establish a basis for developing liquid-based NPC analogs using a large pool of synthetic coacervates and biomolecular condensates.