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Self-pumping ultra-thin film evaporation on CNT-embedded silicon nitride nanopore membrane

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Abstract

The development of nanoporous membrane structure provides a potential opportunity for the advanced ultra-thin liquid film evaporation process, for which the ability of effectively and continuously maintaining the nano-thin liquid film is crucial to realize its superior performance. In this work, we elucidated the nanopore-based ultra-thin water film evaporation characteristics with non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation. A self-pumping water transport through the nanopore was observed, which is attributed to the driving force induced by the evaporation meniscus of thin liquid film. The dry-out crisis will occur with the increasing membrane thickness. We demonstrated that the hydrophobic carbon nanotube (CNT) can be utilized as the coating inside the hydrophilic silicon nitride (Si3N4) nanopore, which reduces the flow resistance and presents an excellent capability to replenish the evaporated water. Based on the above findings, the internal coating of CNT is an advisable strategy for nanopore-based ultra-thin liquid film evaporation, possessing a stable high evaporation flux as well as a good mechanical strength.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51676124). The computations in this paper were run on the π 2.0 cluster supported by the Center for High Performance Computing at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

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  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Runkeng Liu & Zhenyu Liu

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  1. Runkeng Liu
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  2. Zhenyu Liu
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Correspondence to Zhenyu Liu.

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Liu, R., Liu, Z. Self-pumping ultra-thin film evaporation on CNT-embedded silicon nitride nanopore membrane. Nano Res. 15, 1725–1729 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3851-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3851-8

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