• 文献标题:   Low-voltage electrostatic modulation of ion diffusion through layered graphene-based nanoporous membranes
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   CHENG C, JIANG GP, SIMON GP, LIU JZ, LI D
  • 作者关键词:  
  • 出版物名称:   NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY
  • ISSN:   1748-3387 EI 1748-3395
  • 通讯作者地址:   Univ Melbourne
  • 被引频次:   26
  • DOI:   10.1038/s41565-018-0181-4
  • 出版年:   2018

▎ 摘  要

Ion transport in nanoconfinement differs from that in bulk and has been extensively researched across scientific and engineering disciplines(1-4). For many energy and water applications of nanoporous materials, concentration-driven ion diffusion is simultaneously subjected to a local electric field arising from surface charge or an externally applied potential. Due to the uniquely crowded intermolecular forces under severe nanoconfinement (<2 nm), the transport behaviours of ions can be influenced by the interfacial electrical double layer (EDL) induced by a surface potential, with complex implications, engendering unusual ion dynamics(5)(-7). However, it remains an experimental challenge to investigate how such a surface potential and its coupling with nanoconfinement manipulate ion diffusion. Here, we exploit the tunable nanoconfinement in layered graphene-based nanoporous membranes to show that sub-2 nm confined ion diffusion can be strongly modulated by the surface potential-induced EDL. Depending on the potential sign, the combination and concentration of ion pairs, diffusion rates can be reversibly modulated and anomalously enhanced by 4 similar to 7 times within 0.5 volts, across a salt concentration gradient up to seawater salinity. Modelling suggests that this anomalously enhanced diffusion is related to the strong ion-ion correlations under severe nanoconfinement, and cannot be explained by conventional theoretical predictions.