Rare earth elements (REEs), including scandium, yttrium and lanthanides, are strategic resources with unique electric, luminescent and magnetic properties. However, owing to their highly similar physiochemical properties, the identification and separation of all REEs are challenging. Here a Mycobacterium smegmatis porin A nanopore is engineered to contain a nitrilotriacetic acid ligand at its pore constriction. By the further introduction of a secondary ligand N_α,N_α-bis(carboxymethyl)-L-lysine hydrate (ANTA), a dual-ligand sensing strategy was established. A unique property of this strategy is that a variety of REE(III) ions report characteristic blockage features containing three-level transitions, which are critical in discriminating different REE(III)s. The nanopore events of REE(III)s also demonstrate a clear periodicity, suggesting the observation of the lanthanide contraction effect at a single-molecule regime. Assisted by machine learning, all 16 naturally occurring REE(III)s have been identified by the nanopore with high accuracy. This sensing strategy is further applied in analysing bastnaesite samples, suggesting its potential use in geological exploration.

稀土元素 （REE），包括钪、钇和镧系元素，是具有独特电、发光和磁特性的战略资源。然而，由于它们高度相似的理化性质，所有 REE 的鉴定和分离都具有挑战性。在这里，耻垢分枝杆菌孔蛋白 A 纳米孔被设计为在其孔收缩处包含次氮基三乙酸配体。通过进一步引入二级配体 N_{α，N α}-双（羧甲基）-L-赖氨酸水合物 （ANTA），建立了双配体传感策略。该策略的一个独特特性是各种 REE（III） 离子报告包含三能级跃迁的特征阻塞特征，这对于区分不同的 REE（III） 至关重要。REE（III）s 的纳米孔事件也显示出明显的周期性，表明在单分子状态下观察到镧系元素收缩效应。在机器学习的辅助下，纳米孔已高精度地识别了所有 16 种天然存在的 REE（III）。这种传感策略进一步应用于分析氟碳铈矿样品，表明其在地质勘探中的潜在用途。