Related papers: The concept of entropic rectifier facing experimen…
Ion transport measurements are widely used as an indirect probe for various properties of confined electrolytes. It is generally assumed that the ion concentration in a nanoscale channel is equal to the ion concentration in the macroscopic…
Ionic liquids constrained at interfaces or restricted in subnanometric pores are increasingly employed in modern technologies, including energy applications. Understanding the details of their behavior in these conditions is therefore…
We experimentally investigate the phenomenon of a quantum ratchet created by exposing a Bose-Einstein Condensate to short pulses of a potential which is periodic in both space and time. Such a ratchet is manifested by a directed current of…
We explore the properties of run-and-tumble particles moving in a piecewise-linear "ratchet" potential by deriving analytic results for the system's steady-state probability density, current, entropy production rate, extractable power, and…
Nanopores attracted a great deal of scientific interest as templates for biological sensors as well as model systems to understand transport phenomena at the nanoscale. The experimental and theoretical analysis of nanopores has been so far…
Transport of ions in molecular-scale confined spaces is central to all aspects of life and technology: into a crack, it may break steel within days; through a membrane separator, it determines the efficiency of electrochemical energy…
The transport of interacting Brownian particles in a periodic asymmetric (ratchet) substrate is studied numerically. In a zero-temperature regime, the system behaves as a reversible step motor, undergoing multiple sign reversals of the…
We analyze the diffusion of charged and neutral tracers suspended in an electrolyte embedded in a channel of varying cross-section. Making use of systematic approximations, the diffusion equation governing the motion of tracers is mapped…
We introduce a theoretical and numerical method to investigate the flow of charged fluid mixtures under extreme confinement. We model the electrolyte solution as a ternary mixture, comprising two ionic species of opposite charge and a third…
When electrolyte solutions are confined in micro- and nanochannels their conductivity is significantly different from those in a bulk phase. Here we revisit the theory of this phenomenon by focusing attention on the reduction in the ion…
We present an experimental demonstration of a deterministic optical rocking ratchet. A periodic and asymmetric light pattern is created to interact with dielectric microparticles in water, giving rise to a ratchet potential. The sample is…
We model and simulate a nanopore sensor that selectively binds analyte ions. This binding leads to the modulation of the local concentrations of the ions of the background electrolyte (KCl), and, thus, to the modulation of the ionic current…
We present a particle separation mechanism which induces motion of particles of different sizes in opposite directions. The mechanism is based on the combined action of a driving force and an entropic rectification of the Brownian…
The optimal functioning of nanopore-based biosensing tools necessitates rapid polymer capture from the ion reservoir. We identify an ionic correlation-induced transport mechanism that provides this condition without the chemical…
Ion transport in biological and synthetic nanochannels is characterized by such phenomena as ion current fluctuations, rectification, and pumping. Recently, it has been shown that the nanofabricated synthetic pores could be considered as…
We consider the unidirectional particle transport in a suspension of colloidal particles which interact with each other via a pair potential having a hard-core repulsion plus an attractive tail. The colloids are confined within a long…
We investigate analytically a microfluidic device consisting of a tube with non-uniform but spatially periodic diameter, where a fluid driven back and forth by a pump carries colloidal particles. Although the net flow of the fluid is zero,…
In this work we show that optimal ratchet currents of two interacting particles are obtained when stable periodic motion is present. By increasing the coupling strength between identical ratchet maps, it is possible to find, for some…
We consider the problem of electromigration of a sample ion (analyte) within a uniform background electrolyte when the confining channel undergoes a sudden contraction. One example of such a situation arises in microfluidics in the…
The phase offset between surface charge modulation and geometric undulations in a corrugated nanochannel provides a tunable mechanism for rectified, diode-like ion transport under purely pressure-driven conditions: reversing the applied…