Water transport through (7,7) carbon nanotubes of different lengths using molecular dynamics

William Nicholls, Matthew Karl Borg, Duncan A. Lockerby, Jason Reese

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

111 Citations (Scopus)
333 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations are used to investigate water transport through (7,7) CNTs, examining how changing the CNT length affects the internal flow dynamics. Pressure-driven water flow through CNT lengths ranging from 2.5 to 50 nm is simulated. We show that under the same applied pressure difference an increase in CNT length has a negligible effect on the resulting mass flow rate and fluid flow velocity. Flow enhancements over hydrodynamic expectations are directly proportional to the CNT length. Axial profiles of fluid properties demonstrate that entrance and exit effects are significant in the transport of water along CNTs. Large viscous losses in these entrance/exit regions lead into central “developed” regions in longer CNTs where the flow is effectively frictionless.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)257-264
Number of pages8
JournalMicrofluidics and Nanofluidics
Volume12
Issue number1-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2012

Keywords

  • carbon nanotubes
  • molecular dynamics
  • microfluidic

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