Related papers: A nanoporous capacitive electrochemical ratchet fo…
Nanopores are both a tool to study single-molecule biophysics and nanoscale ion transport, but also a promising material for desalination or osmotic power generation. Understanding the physics underlying ion transport through nano-sized…
Harnessing energy from ubiquitous water resources via molecular-scale mechanisms remains a critical frontier in sustainable energy research. Herein, we present a novel evaporation-driven power generator based on a dynamic diode architecture…
Metallic nanoparticles have been used as catalysts for various reactions, and the huge literature on the subject is hard to overlook. In many applications, the nanoparticles must be affixed to a colloidal carrier for easy handling during…
There has been tremendous experimental progress in the last decade in identifying the structure and function of biological pores (ion channels) and fabricating synthetic pores. Despite this progress, many questions still remain about the…
Films of titanate nanosheets (approx. 1.8-nm layer thickness and 200-nm size) having a lamellar structure can form electrolytefilled semi-permeable channels containing tetrabutylammonium cations. By evaporation of a colloidal solution,…
Nano-scale fluid transport has vast applications spanning from water desalination to biotechnology [1,2]. It is possible to pump fluids in nano-conduits using pressure gradients [3], thermal methods [4], electric [5,6] and magnetic fields…
Electronic ratchets transduce local spatial asymmetries into directed currents in the absence of a global drain bias, by rectifying temporal signals that reside far from thermal equilibrium. We show that the absence of a drain bias can…
We report electron-beam activated motion of a catalytic nanoparticle along a graphene step edge and associated etching of the edge. This approach enables beam-controlled etching of matter through activated electrocatalytic processes. The…
Nanoporous membranes, leveraging their high-throughput characteristics, have been widely applied in fields such as molecular separation and energy conversion. Due to interpore interactions, besides the applied voltage and solution…
With the ability to selectively control ionic flux, biological protein ion channels perform a fundamental role in many physiological processes. For practical applications that require the functionality of a biological ion channel, graphene…
A macroscopic fluid pump works according to the law of Newtonian mechanics and transfers a large number of molecules per cycle (of the order of 10^23). By contrast, a nano-scale charge pump can be thought as the ultimate miniaturization of…
In charged nanopores, ionic diffusion current reflects the ionic selectivity and ionic permeability of nanopores which determines the performance of osmotic energy conversion, i.e. the output power and efficiency. Here, theoretical…
Plasmonic molecular nanojunctions exhibit opto-mechanical coupling at the nanoscale, enabling intertwined optical, vibrational and electronic phenomena. Here, we demonstrate plasmon-mediated phonon pumping, driven by inelastic electron…
Ionic liquids are widely used as electrolytes in electrochemical devices. In this context, many experimental and theoretical approaches have been recently developed for characterizing their interface with electrodes. In this perspective…
Electrophoresis is a motion of charged dispersed particles relative to a fluid in a uniform electric field. The effect is widely used to separate macromolecules, to assemble colloidal structures, to transport particles in nano- and…
Using extensive room-temperature molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate selective aqueous cation trapping and permeation in graphene-embedded 18-crown-6 ether pores. We show that in the presence of suspended water-immersed…
Silicon is a promising candidate for negative electrodes due to its high theoretical specific capacity (~3579 mAh g-1) and low lithiation potential (~0.40 V vs Li). However, its practical applications in battery have been inhibited by the…
Hydroxide ion transport in anion-exchange membranes fundamentally limits the efficiency of alkaline water electrolysis for green hydrogen production, yet the atomic-scale transport mechanisms remain poorly understood due to the…
Bipolar nanopores, with asymmetric charge distributions, can induce significant ionic current rectification (ICR) at ultra-short lengths, finding potential applications in nanofluidic devices, energy conversion, and other related fields.…
Using molecular dynamics simulations, we show that, when subject to a periodic external electric field, a nanopore in ionic solution acts as a capacitor with memory (memcapacitor) at various frequencies and strengths of the electric field.…