Abstract
The emergence of the field of nanofluidics in the last decade1 has led to the development of important applications including water desalination2, ultrafiltration2 and osmotic energy conversion3. Most applications make use of carbon nanotubes4, boron nitride nanotubes2, graphene5,6 and graphene oxide5. In particular, understanding water transport in carbon nanotubes is key for designing ultrafiltration devices2 and energy-efficient water filters1,4. However, although theoretical studies based on molecular dynamics simulations7,8,9 have revealed many mechanistic features of water transport at the molecular level, further advances in this direction are limited by the fact that the lowest flow velocities accessible by simulations7,8,9 are orders of magnitude higher than those measured experimentally4,10,11,12,13. Here, we extend molecular dynamics studies of water transport through carbon nanotubes to flow velocities comparable with experimental ones using massive crowd-sourced computing power. We observe previously undetected oscillations in the friction force between water and carbon nanotubes and show that these oscillations result from the coupling between confined water molecules and the longitudinal phonon modes of the nanotube. This coupling can enhance the diffusion of confined water by more than 300%. Our results may serve as a theoretical framework for the design of new devices for more efficient water filtration and osmotic energy conversion devices.
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Computing for Clean Water Project Statistics; http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/stat/viewProject.do?projectShortName=c4cw
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the thousands of volunteers who have contributed to the Computing for Clean Water project for their enthusiastic support. The authors thank A. Michaelides and G. Aeppli for discussions. This research was undertaken with the assistance of resources from the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), which is supported by the Australian Government.
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F.G., M.M. and Q.S.Z. proposed and designed the project. M.M. performed MD simulations, data analysis and theoretical analysis. F.G. coordinated the project and participated in data analysis. L.M.S. participated in the design of the MD simulations set-up and provided key resources for test simulations and data analysis. M.U. performed theoretical analysis and participated in data analysis. M.M., F.G., M.U. and Q.S.Z. wrote the manuscript. L.M.S., S.W., J.Z.L. and Y.L.L. participated in data analysis and manuscript preparation.
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Ma, M., Grey, F., Shen, L. et al. Water transport inside carbon nanotubes mediated by phonon-induced oscillating friction. Nature Nanotech 10, 692–695 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2015.134
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2015.134
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