Fig. 2: The formation and liquidity of coacervate 1/pore 1 complexes (denoted as COA1@POR1).

a Self-deployment of coacervate droplets into the solid-state pores. b COA1 droplets suspended in the dilute phase as observed in the transmission (left) and fluorescence channel (right). c POR1 on PC membranes as imaged by optical microscopy (left) and SEM (right). d A SEM picture of dried COA1@POR1 membrane, demonstrating the solid remaining in the pores (highlighted by arrows). e Z-stack scan of a COA1@POR1 membrane where the cross sections in the xy, xz, and yz planes are laid out on the left and the 3D reconstruction is presented on the right (box size = 70 × 70 × 7 μm, color bar indicates height in z direction). f The contact angle (θ) of a COA1 droplet on PC surface underneath its dilute phase is 38 °. g The compositions of free COA1 droplets and in-pore COA1 are similar. Data are presented as mean ± SD (n = 3 independent experiments). h The FRAP curves for COA1@POR1, COA10@POR1, and COA17@POR1, and their corresponding free droplets. Sequential snapshots of a FRAP process of COA1@POR1 from −4 s (before bleaching) to 25 s of recovery, where the irradiation area is highlighted by a white circle. The coacervates in (b, e, h) are fluorescently labeled by 5 μM RhB. Scale bars = 20 μm (b) and 10 μm (c–e, h).