Related papers: Molecular transport through capillaries made with …
Under ambient humidity, water spontaneously condenses in pores only a few nanometers in size, making nanoscale capillarity central to numerous natural phenomena and technological applications. At these dimensions, water may no longer be…
It has long been an aspirational goal to create artificial structures that allow fast permeation of water but reject even the smallest hydrated ions, replicating the feat achieved by nature in protein channels (e.g., aquaporins). Despite…
Capillary condensation of water is ubiquitous in nature and technology. It routinely occurs in granular and porous media, can strongly alter such properties as adhesion, lubrication, friction and corrosion, and is important in many…
Fluidic channels at atomic scales regulate cellular trafficking and molecular filtration across membranes and thus play crucial roles in the functioning of living systems. However, constructing synthetic channels experimentally at these…
High-fidelity analysis of translocating biomolecules through nanopores demands shortening the nanocapillary length to a minimal value. Existing nanopores and capillaries, however, inherit a finite length from the parent membranes. Here, we…
Gas permeation through nanoscale pores is ubiquitous in nature and plays an important role in a plethora of technologies. Because the pore size is typically smaller than the mean free path of gas molecules, their flow is conventionally…
Capillary forces guide the motion of biomolecular condensates, water-borne insects, and breakfast cereal. These surface-mediated interactions can be harnessed to build units into materials with exotic properties deriving from mesoscale…
Graphene-based laminates, with ultralong and tortuous nanocapillaries formed by simply stacking graphene flakes together, have great promises in filtration and separation. However, the information on liquid water trans-membrane permeation…
To fully exploit van der Waals materials and heterostructures, new mass-scalable production routes that are low cost but preserve the high electronic and optical quality of the single crystals are required. Here, we demonstrate an approach…
Recent developments in fabrication techniques enabled the production of nano- and angstrom-scale conduits. While scientists are able to conduct experimental studies to demonstrate extreme evaporation rates from these capillaries,…
Water inside a nanocapillary becomes ordered, resulting in unconventional behavior. A profound enhancement of water flow inside nanometer thin capillaries made of graphene has been observed [B. Radha et.al., Nature (London) 538, 222…
Ion-selective channels play a key role in physiological processes and are used in many technologies. While biological channels can efficiently separate same-charge ions with similar hydration shells, it remains a challenge to mimic such…
Water in nanoscale cavities is ubiquitous and of central importance to everyday phenomena in geology and biology. However, the properties of nanoscale water can be remarkably different from bulk, as shown e.g., by the anomalously low…
We present direct experimental evidence that water droplets can spontaneously penetrate non-wetting capillaries, driven by the action of Laplace pressure due to high droplet curvature. Using high-speed optical imaging, microcapillaries of…
We revisit the classical problem of flow of electrolyte solutions through charged capillary nanopores or nanotubes as described by the capillary pore model (also called "space charge" theory). This theory assumes very long and thin pores…
The problem of capillary transport in fibrous porous materials at low levels of liquid saturation has been addressed. It has been demonstrated, that the process of liquid spreading in this type of porous materials at low saturation can be…
Atoms start behaving as waves rather than classical particles if confined in spaces commensurate with their de Broglie wavelength. At room temperature this length is only about one angstrom even for the lightest atom, hydrogen. This…
Capillarity-driven self-assembly at fluidic interfaces offers a scalable route to large, reconfigurable materials. Microscale particles with high horizontal-to-vertical aspect ratios become attractive building blocks for shape-directed…
The understanding of and control over light emission from quantum tunneling has challenged researchers for more than four decades due to the intricate interplay of electrical and optical properties in atomic scale volumes. Here we introduce…
Crystalline films offer various physical properties based on the modulation of their thicknesses and atomic structures. The layer-by-layer assembly of atomically thin crystals provides powerful means to arbitrarily design films at the…