• 文献标题:   Nanopumping of water via rotation of graphene nanoribbons
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   TOH W, ANG EYM, NG TY, LIN RM, LIU ZS
  • 作者关键词:   flagella, nanopumping, graphene, twisted ribbon, molecular dynamic
  • 出版物名称:   NANOTECHNOLOGY
  • ISSN:   0957-4484 EI 1361-6528
  • 通讯作者地址:   Nanyang Technol Univ
  • 被引频次:   0
  • DOI:   10.1088/1361-6528/ab6ab6
  • 出版年:   2020

▎ 摘  要

In this paper, we perform molecular dynamics simulations to propose a novel bio-inspired nanopumping mechanism that is achieved through the rotation of graphene nanoribbons. Due to the rotation and interaction with water, the graphene nanoribbons undergo morphological transformation. It is shown that with appropriate geometrical and spatial parameters, the resulting morphology is twisted ribbon, which is efficient in pumping of water through a channel. This mimics the propulsive behavior of bacterial flagella through continual rotation at the base and causing morphology of the geometry into twisted ribbons, thus driving flow. It was observed that the maximum flux rate decreases upon reaching the optimal configuration even with increasing rotational speed and graphene width. This is due to the development of cavitation near the region of the nanoribbon with tip velocities approaching the speed of sound in water. The simulation shows promising results where the flux rate of the driven flow outperforms various nanopump configurations that have been reported in recent literature by more than one order.