A Nanometer Water Pump Induced by the Brownian and Non-Brownian Motion of a Graphene Sheet on a Membrane Surface

Energy-saving water pump and efficient semipermeable membranes are the cores of reverse osmosis technology. Applying nanotechnology to improve the performance is a fashion in recent years. Based on the competitive effect of water’s spontaneous infiltration of two sides of a carbon nanotube, we desig...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nanoscale research letters 2018-10, Vol.13 (1), p.305-8, Article 305
Main Authors: Fang, Chang, Lv, Fujing, Su, Jiaye
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brownian motion
Carbon nanotube
Carbon nanotubes
Chemistry and Materials Science
Competitiveness
Energy conservation
Fluctuations
Fluidics
Flux
Graphene
Infiltration
Materials Science
Membranes
Molecular dynamics
Molecular Medicine
Nano Idea
Nanochannels
Nanochemistry
Nanofluids
Nanoscale Science and Technology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology and Microengineering
Osmotic pressure
Performance enhancement
Permeability
Reverse osmosis
Semipermeable membranes
Surface energy
Surface properties
Transport
Water
Water chemistry
Water conservation
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Summary:Energy-saving water pump and efficient semipermeable membranes are the cores of reverse osmosis technology. Applying nanotechnology to improve the performance is a fashion in recent years. Based on the competitive effect of water’s spontaneous infiltration of two sides of a carbon nanotube, we design a water pump that makes use of the natural permeability by weakening one side’s competitiveness based on a small graphite sheet laying on the membrane. According to molecular dynamic simulations, continues net flux is observed. The motion mode of the sheet is the key for the performance. For the pure Brownian motion without any dynamical load, we find two water molecules per nanosecond flux, while the flux induced by the unidirectional motion can be several times enhanced, depending on the external force. The Brownian motion is similar to the physical mechanism of osmotic pressure, and the unidirectional motion shows great performance that has huge applications for reverse osmosis. Our work creatively proposes a new strategy to pump water molecules crossing though a nanochannel, inspiring for nanofluidic device designers.
ISSN:1931-7573
1556-276X
DOI:10.1186/s11671-018-2732-x