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Ion-Induced Friction Reduction in Water Nanoflow over Graphene

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Abstract

Our extensive nonequilibrium and equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations reveal the ion-induced interfacial friction reduction of NaCl-containing water nanoflow over graphene. Even under a normal pressure, with the increase in ion concentration, the friction coefficients of water nanoflow at the water/graphene interfaces decrease, and the slip lengths and shear viscosities of water nanoflow increase. The interfacial friction reduction with the increase in ion concentration is mainly attributed to the decrease in interfacial hydrated ions and the weaker binding of water molecules with graphene at a higher ion concentration. The presence of ions changes the hydrogen bond networks and structural configuration of water molecules close to the underlying graphene sheets and plays a key role in reducing the interfacial friction between water nanoflow and graphene.

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All data generated or analyzed used to support the findings of this study are included within the article and supplementary material.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11972186, 11890674, 51921003), the Western Light Project of CAS (xbzg-zdsys-202118), and a Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, MOE Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices, College of Aerospace Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Yue Wang, Yufeng Guo & Wanlin Guo

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  1. Yue Wang
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Contributions

YW: Writing—original draft, performed molecular dynamics simulations, formal analysis, contributed to the discussion of the results. YG: Supervision, supervised the whole research, Writing—original draft, formal analysis, contributed to the discussion of the results. WG: Supervised the research, contributed to the discussion of the results.

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Correspondence to Yufeng Guo.

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Wang, Y., Guo, Y. & Guo, W. Ion-Induced Friction Reduction in Water Nanoflow over Graphene. Acta Mech. Solida Sin. 36, 214–220 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10338-022-00373-w

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