Comments on Ion Selectivity at the Crossroad between Biology and Biomimetics

The growing global pressure on water resources requires continuous improvements of water treatment technologies. Here new membrane developments are attracting increasing interest as they may provide potential solutions for a wide variety of industrial production processes. In this aspect, efficient ion selective membranes facilitating transport driven by electrochemical gradients for industrial separation processes, or membranes capable of generating energy by conversion of electrochemical gradients into electrical energy are attracting increasing interest. Despite progress in ion selective/ion‐exchange membrane material science there is still a need for performance improvements in order to fully explore promising existing and new applications based on ion‐selectivity. With the advent of new materials where the selectivity mechanism is obtained by establishing narrow conduits akin to structures found in biological membrane channel proteins, a new era is being entered into of ion selective membrane development. Here, some of the key features of ion‐transport in nanoscale pores and apertures will be discussed with a view of how biological mechanisms may inspire the development of biomimetic ion selective membranes.