A Quantitative Analysis of the Voltage-Current Relationships of Fixed Charge Membranes and the Associated Property of “Punch-Through”

Abstract

A theoretical analysis of the voltage-current relationship is carried out in a membrane consisting of two fixed charge regions, of opposite sign, in contact. This is achieved by applying the diffusion equations to this system in conjunction with the Poisson-Boltzmann equation. The latter has been successfully applied by Mauro to determine the profiles of the electrostatic potential in his treatment of the capacitative property of such a system. It is shown that the system displays the property of rectification and is very similar in many respects to a solid state P-N junction diode. It is also shown that for the case of reverse bias, an electrical breakdown phenomena can occur. This is referred to as the "punch-through" effect. "Punch-through" was observed in experiments on the electrical characteristics of the membranes of Chara australis and Nitella sp. The experimental results are discussed in relation to the theoretical analysis.

Modeling of Forward and Reverse Bias Conditions in Bipolar Membranes

“…under forward bias conditions will allow for an unambiguous characterization of the water dissociation reaction. In this sense, our results can be of interest in the multidisciplinary fields where the "bipolar membrane" model finds application [2,5,11,12,[14][15][16]. Fig.…”

“…According to the depleted layer model for the abrupt junction [1,4,6,11,13] (see Fig. 1), the electric field at x = 0 is given by and the thickness of the space charge region is where E, is the dielectric constant of the bipolar junction and e0 the permittivity of free space.…”

Membrane Electrical Behaviour in Nitellopsis Obtusa

“…There was no indication of "punch-through" (Coster 1965) at either membrane over the range of J examined.…”

Nonviral ocular gene transfer

“…Electroporation is the use of electric fields to facilitate penetration of macromolecules into cells; it is based upon the observation that electric fields can alter the structure and permeability of cell membranes. 20 Electroporation has been used extensively for gene transfer in vitro, and since the early 1990s, it has also been used for gene delivery in vivo. [21][22][23] The first application for the eye was for gene delivery to the cornea, 24,25 but recently electroporation has been used to deliver genes to retinal ganglion cells in adult rat retina 26,27 and to retinal progenitor cells in neonatal rodents.…”