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Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.101, No.31, 6073-6078, 1997
Use of the Poisson-Boltzmann Equation to Estimate the Electrostatic Free-Energy Barrier for Dielectric Models of Biological Ion Channels
We have obtained the electrostatic free energy profile of a univalent positive ion as it is moved from a bulk electrolyte solution into a biological ion channel of various model forms. The form of the results was unaffected by the method of calculation. We used a fully consistent nonlinearized Poisson-Boltzmann scheme, a fully consistent linearized Poisson-Boltzmann scheme, and hybrid scheme. The channel models we used were designed to (crudely) mimic the shape and imbedded charge and dipolar distributions for biological ion-selective channels (such as the voltage-gated K+ "shaker" channel). The results obtained were accounted for on simple physical grounds.