Effect of Vibration on Water Transport through Carbon Nanotubes

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CHIN.PHYS.LETT.Vol.25,No.3(2008)1145EffectofVibrationonWaterTransportthroughCarbonNanotubes∗LUHang-Jun(陆杭军)1,2,3,GONGXiao-Jing(弓晓晶)1,2,WANGChun-Lei(王春雷)1,2,FANGHai-Ping(方海平)1,4,WANRong-Zheng(万荣正)1,2∗∗

1ShanghaiInstituteofAppliedPhysics,ChineseAcademyofSciences,POBox800-204,Shanghai201800

2GraduateSchooloftheChineseAcademyofSciences,Beijing100080

3DepartmentofPhysics,ZhejiangNormalUniversity,Jinhua321004

4TheoreticalPhysicsCenterforScienceFacilities(TPCSF),ChineseAcademyofSciences,Beijing100049

(Received29October2007)Westudytheresponseofwaterpermeationpropertiesthroughacarbonnanotubeonthetime-dependentme-chanicalsignals.Itisfoundthatthereisacriticalfrequencyofvibratingfc(about1333GHz)whichplaysasignificantroleinthewaterpermeationproperties.Thetotalwaterflow,thenetflux,thenumberofhydrogenbondsandthedipoleflippingfrequencyofthesingle-filewaterchaininsidethenanotubearealmostunchangedforthefrequencyofvibratingfthemechanicalnoise.Suchexcellenteffectofnoisescreeningisattributedtotheexceptionalpropertyofwatermoleculesconnectedbystronghydrogenbondswitheachotherandformingaone-dimensionalwaterchaininsidethenanotube.Ourfindingsareimportantfortheunderstandingofwhybiologicalsystemscanachieveaccurateinformationtransferinanenvironmentfulloffluctuations.

PACS:87.14.Gg,87.15.He,36.20.Ey

Moleculartransportthroughmicroscaleornanoscaleporesisessentialformanybiologicalandtechnicalprocesses.[1,2]Manychannelsdesignedforconductingsubstrates,suchasbiologicalmolecules,smallmolecules,ions,etc.,arewaterfilledandcanpermeatewateraswell.[3]Waterpermeationthroughthesenanoscalechannelshasbeenatopicoftheo-reticalandexperimentalstudiesformanyyears.[4−9]Whenconfinedinmicroscaleornanoscalesystems,waterusuallydisplaysinterestingphenomenadifferentfromthoseinbulk.[10,11]Typically,watermoleculesconfinedinthesingle-wallcarbonnanotubewithap-propriateradiusformasingle-filechainwithconcerteddipoleflippingcollectively.Ithasbeenfoundthataminutemodificationofthewater-wallinteraction[10]andtheradiusofthechannel[12]bothcanresultinliquid–vapourtransitions.Oneofthemostimportantmotivationstostudythebehaviourofwatermoleculesinsimplenanochan-nelisthesimilarityofwatermoleculesinthebiolog-icalchannels.[13,14]Ithasbeenshownthatthesim-plechannelandbiologicalchannelsharethesimilarliquid–vapourtransitionsandwave-likewaterdistri-butionalongthechannel.Itiswellrecognizedthatsimplecarbonnanotubescanbeusedasmodelsys-temstoexploitsomeoftheprimarybehavioursofthebiologicalwaterchannels.[5,6]Formolecularbiologicalsystems,theexternalandinternalfluctuationsareusuallynon-negligible.Thusaquestionarises:howtoachieveaccurateinforma-tiontransferofbiologicalsystemsinanenvironmentfulloffluctuations?InthisLetter,wepresentthenumericalsimulationsofwatermoleculestransportthroughasingle-walledcarbonnanotube(SWNT)withatime-dependentmechanicalsignalsproducedbyexternallyvibratingacarbonatom.Itisfoundthatthefrequencyofvibrating,f,playsakeyroleinwatertransportthroughcarbonnanotubes.Whenthefrequencyofthevibratingislowerthanacriticalvaluefc,waterflow,netflux,theflippingfrequencyofwaterdipolesandnumberofthehydrogenbondsconnectingwatermoleculesinsidetheSWNTarealmostunchanged.Thereisanexcellenteffectofscreeningmechanicalnoise.Asthefrequencyofvi-bratingisoverfc,thewaterflow,netfluxandflippingfrequencyofwaterdipolesincreasesharplyandthehydrogenbondnumberofwatermoleculesinsidetheSWNTdecreases.ThesimulationframeworkisshowninFig.1.Tomimicthebiologicalwaterchannelsinmembranes,anuncapped,single-walledcarbonnanotube,13.4˚Ainlengthand8.1˚Aindiameter,alongthezdirec-tionisembeddedinthecentreofagraphitesheet.ThedistancebetweentheleftendoftheSWNTandthegraphitesheetis2˚A.Acarbonatom,namedasthevibrating-atom,onthetopsideofthecarbonnanotubeisforcedtomoveaccordingtotheequation

x=x0+Acos(ωt+ϕ),(1)wherex0istheinitialpositionofthevibrating-carbonatom,Aistheamplitude,ωisangularfrequency,andϕistheinitialphase.Thefrequencyfisdefinedasω/2π.Thecarbonatomsinthebottomhalfofthecarbonnanotubearefixed.Consequently,someofthecarbonatomsneighbouringthevibrating-atomwill

∗SupportedbytheNationalNaturalScienceFoundationofChinaunderGrantsNos10604060and10674146.

∗∗Towhomcorrespondenceshouldbeaddressed.Email:wanrongzheng@sinap.ac.cn

c󰀂2008ChinesePhysicalSocietyandIOPPublishingLtd