Related papers: Angstrofluidics: walking to the limit
Nanometre-scale pores and capillaries have long been studied because of their importance in many natural phenomena and their use in numerous applications. A more recent development is the ability to fabricate artificial capillaries with…
Recent experiments on active materials, such as dense bacterial suspensions and microtubule-kinesin motor mixtures, show a promising potential for achieving self-sustained flows. However, to develop active microfluidics it is necessary to…
Boundary conditions dictate how fluids, including liquid crystals, flow when pumped through a channel. Can boundary conditions also be used to control internally driven active fluids that generate flows spontaneously? By using numerical…
Ion channels are proteins with holes down their middle that control the flow of ions and electric current across otherwise impermeable biological membranes. The flow of sodium, potassium, calcium (divalent), and chloride ions have been…
An ability to precisely regulate the quantity and location of molecular flux is of value in applications such as nanoscale 3D printing, catalysis, and sensor design. Barrier materials containing pores with molecular dimensions have…
The emerging field of deformable microfluidics widely employed in the Lab-on-a-Chip and MEMS communities offers an opportunity to study a relatively under-examined physics. The main objective of this work is to provide a deeper insight into…
Membranes are ubiquitous in nature with primary functions that include adaptive filtering and selective transport of chemical and molecular species. Being critical to cellular functions, they are also fundamental in many areas of science…
In Nature, liquids often circulate in channels textured with leaflets, cilia or porous walls that deform with the flow. These soft structures are optimized to passively control flows and inspire the design of novel microfluidic and soft…
Significant success has been achieved in fabricating angstrom-scale artificial solid ionic channels aiming to replicate the biological ion channels (BICs).Besides high selectivity, BICs also exhibit sophisticated ion gating and interplay.…
Understanding the flow of liquid crystals in microfluidic environments plays an important role in many fields, including device design and microbiology. We perform hybrid lattice-Boltzmann simulations of a nematic liquid crystal flowing…
Translocation properties of ionic channels are investigated, on the basis of classical electrostatics, with an emphasis on asymptotic formulas for the potential and field associated with a point charge in the channel. Due to image charges…
Specific molecular interactions underlie unexpected and useful phenomena in nanofluidic systems, but require descriptions that go beyond traditional macroscopic hydrodynamics. In this letter, we demonstrate how equilibrium molecular…
Fluid and ionic transport at nanoscale recently highlighted a wealth of exotic behaviours. However, the artificial nanofluidic devices are still far from the advanced functionalities existing in biological systems, such as electrically and…
We consider an anisotropically two-dimensional diffusion of a charged molecule (particle) through a large biological channel under an external voltage. The channel is modeled as a cylinder of three structure parameters: radius, length, and…
Low Reynolds number flow near a poroelastic interface can be found across scales in biological and engineered systems. We develop a 2D model of peristaltic flow confined under a poroelastic solid. In this geometry, the lower boundary is an…
Conical microfluidic channels filled with electrolytes exhibit volatile memristive behavior, offering a promising platform for energy-efficient, neuromorphic computing. Here, we integrate these iontronic channels as additional nonlinear…
Nanofluidic transport is ubiquitous in natural systems from extra-cellular communication in biology to geological phenomena, and promotes the emergence of new technologies such as energy harvesting and water desalination. While experimental…
Memristors that mimic brain functions are crucial for energy-efficient neuromorphic devices. Ion channels that emulate biological synapses are still in the early stages of development, especially the tunability of memory states. Here, we…
Ion channels orchestrate the communication between cells and their environment. These are special proteins capable of changing their shape to allow ions to pass through membranes in response to stimuli like membrane tension. As the letters…
We review recent advances in the design, synthesis, and modeling of active fluids. Active fluids have been at the center of many technological innovations and theoretical advances over the past two decades. Research on this new class of…