Tunable Water Channels with Carbon Nanoscrolls

Abstract

dynamics simulations and theoretical analyses are performed to show that the flow rate of water through the core of carbon nanoscrolls (CNSs) can be adjusted over a broad range through the effective surface energy, which in turn can be tuned by an applied DC or AC electric field. The results suggest that the CNSs hold great promise for applications such as tunable water and ion channels, nanofluidic devices, and nanofilters, as well as tunable gene-and drug-delivery systems.

Stretch-induced softening of bending rigidity in graphene

“…6,7 In particular, the behaviors of graphene under coupled stretching and bending are of fundamental significance for the study of graphene-based structures and devices. 8,9 It is known that wrinkling of a thin elastic sheet depends strongly on both the bending stiffness and stretching, 10 and controllable ripples in suspended graphene have indeed been created via in-plane stretching. 11 The behavior of graphene under uniaxial stretching has been studied by molecular mechanics simulations [12][13][14][15] and first-principle calculations.…”

Radial stability and configuration transition of carbon nanotubes regulated by enclosed cores

“…Moreover, it should be noted that the peak value is much smaller than that of the corresponding single (30,30) SWCNT, which indicates that the presence of the inner core can disturb the perfect open configuration of the outer SWCNT and facilitate the collapse of the outer CNT. For inner cores with medium diameter (e.g., SWCNTs with chiral indices of (15,15) and (17,17)) as shown in Figs. 3(b) and 3(c), the MEP curves show two peaks due to the successive collapses of the overlapping and nonoverlapping regions between the inner core and outer SWCNT.…”

“…[16][17][18][19][20] Previous studies have shown that nanoparticles can drive the radial collapse of thin-walled elastic stretchable nanotubes when the nanoparticles adhere to the nanotubes and the control of nanoparticle selfassembly on the tubes can lead to nanoparticle-laden responsive materials. 16 It has been found that the electric field can be used to control the radius of the hollow inner cores of carbon nanoscrolls by tuning the effective surface energy and thus provide guidance for the design of controllable water channels.…”

“…16 It has been found that the electric field can be used to control the radius of the hollow inner cores of carbon nanoscrolls by tuning the effective surface energy and thus provide guidance for the design of controllable water channels. 17 The presence of the functional groups can also strongly affect the radial collapse and elasticity of the chemically modified single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs) and the fluorine modified SWCNTs are ideal candidates as fillers to strengthening composite materials. 18 It has also been demonstrated that tuning the surface energy of the system through an applied electric field can induce the large and reversible volumetric deformation of CNT bundles.…”

Nano-Engineering of Graphene and Related Materials

“…Kaxiras's group also investigate arbitrarily shaped graphene nanoflakes with focuses on the spin properties and propose spintronic nanoscale devices by sculpting graphene fragments and exploiting the shape dependence of magnetic properties (Wang et al, 2007). Other nanostructures of graphene such as twists (Bets & Yakobson, 2009;Gunlycke et al, 2010) and scrolls (Xie et al, 2009;Shi et al, 2010) also have interesting electronic properties and potential applications.…”