Electronic friction and liquid-flow-induced voltage in nanotubes
Abstract
A recent exciting experiment by Ghosh et al. reported that the flow of an ion-containing liquid such as water through bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes induces a voltage in the nanotubes that grows logarithmically with the flow velocity v0. We propose an explanation for this observation. Assuming that the liquid molecules nearest the nanotube form a 2D solid-like monolayer pinned through the adsorbed ions to the nanotubes, the monolayer sliding will occur by elastic loading followed by local yield (stick-slip). The drifting adsorbed ions produce a voltage in the nanotube through electronic friction against free electrons inside the nanotube. Thermally excited jumps over force-biased barriers, well-known in stick-slip, can explain the logarithmic voltage growth with flow velocity. We estimate the short circuit current and the internal resistance of the nanotube voltage generator.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0407291,
title = {Electronic friction and liquid-flow-induced voltage in nanotubes},
author = {B. N. J. Persson and U. Tartaglino and E. Tosatti and H. Ueba},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0407291},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
8 pages, 3 figures; published on PRB (http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v69/e235410) and on the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology (http://www.vjnano.org, July 14, 2002, Vol. 10, Iss. 2)