Related papers: Active Ionic Fluxes Induce Symmetry Breaking in Ch…
We report a detailed study of neuromorphic switching behaviour in inherently complex percolating networks of self-assembled metal nanoparticles. We show that variation of the strength and duration of the electric field applied to this…
Charged colloidal particles propel themselves through asymmetric fluxes of chemically generated ions on their surface. We show that asymmetry in the surface charge distribution introduces a new mode of self-phoretic motion for chemically…
Water molecules, confined in a carbon nanotube, were monitored using molecular dynamics simulation. Spontaneous directional transportation during a long timescale was observed in the symmetrical nanochannel by a ratchet-like mechanism. This…
Microfluidics involves the manipulation of flows at the microscale, typically requiring external power sources to generate pressure gradients. Alternatively, harnessing flows from active fluids, which are usually chaotic, has been proposed…
The transport of fluids at the nanoscale is fundamental to manifold biological and industrial processes, ranging from neurotransmission to ultrafiltration. Yet, it is only recently that well-controlled channels with cross-sections as small…
Recent advance in nanotechnology has led to rapid advances in nanofluidics, which has been established as a reliable means for a wide variety of applications, including molecular separation, detection, crystallization and biosynthesis.…
We investigate the coupled dynamics of concentration and charge in asymmetric 1:1 electrolytes, focusing on the interplay between diffusion asymmetry and external electric fields. Using Brownian dynamics simulations and linearized…
In order to detect the effect of the surface charge discreteness on the properties at the solid-liquid interface, molecular dynamics simulation model taking consideration of the vibration of wall atoms was used to investigate the ion and…
Recent experiments (F.H.J. Van Der Heyden et al., PRL 96, 224502 (2006)) of streaming currents in silica nanochannels with divalent ions report charge inversion, i.e. interfacial charges attracting counterions in excess of their own nominal…
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…
Active nematic fluids confined in narrow channels generate spontaneous flows when the activity is sufficiently intense. Recently, it was shown that if the molecular anchoring at the channel walls is conflicting flows are initiated even in…
The spontaneous emergence of collective flows is a generic property of active fluids and often leads to chaotic flow patterns characterised by swirls, jets, and topological disclinations in their orientation field. However, the ability to…
The present study aims to investigate utilizing field-effect for inducing heterogeneous surface charge and consequently changing the fluid flow in a solid-state nanochannel with converging-diverging periodicity. It is shown that the…
Reliable and controllable switches are crucial in nanofluidics and iontronics. Ion channels in nature serve as a rich source of inspiration due to their intricate mechanisms modulated by stimuli like pressure, temperature, chemicals, and…
Water mediates electrostatic interactions via the orientation of its dipoles around ions, molecules, and interfaces. This induced water polarization consequently influences multiple phenomena. In particular, water polarization modulated by…
Controlling interfaces of phase separating fluid mixtures is key to creating diverse functional soft materials. Traditionally, this is accomplished with surface-modifying chemical agents. Using experiment and theory, we study how mechanical…
We numerically study the dynamics of a passive fluid droplet confined within a microchannel whose walls are covered with a thin layer of active gel. The latter represents a fluid of extensile material modelling, for example, a suspension of…
Active materials with distinctive nonequilibrium properties have diverse materials science applications. Active systems are common in living matter, such as the filament network in the cell that is activated by molecular motors, and in…
Living cells and tissues can generate complex patterns of electric fields and fluid flows which can play important role in physiology. Both, fields and flows are rooted in ion transport across biological interfaces: cell membranes and…
Room-temperature Coulomb blockade of charge transport through composite nanostructures containing organic inter-links has recently been observed. A pronounced charging effect in combination with the softness of the molecular links implies…