Extended friction elucidates the breakdown of fast water transport in graphene oxide membranes
- Author(s)
- A. Montessori, C. A. Amadei, G. Falcucci, M. Sega, C. D. Vecitis, S. Succi
- Abstract
The understanding of water transport in graphene oxide (GO) membranes stands out as a major theoretical problem in graphene research. Notwithstanding the intense efforts devoted to the subject in the recent years, a consolidated picture of water transport in GO membranes is yet to emerge. By performing mesoscale simulations of water transport in ultrathin GO membranes, we show that even small amounts of oxygen functionalities can lead to a dramatic drop of the GO permeability, in line with experimental findings. The coexistence of bulk viscous dissipation and spatially extended molecular friction results in a major decrease of both slip and bulk flow, thereby suppressing the fast water transport regime observed in pristine graphene nanochannels. Inspection of the flow structure reveals an inverted curvature in the near-wall region, which connects smoothly with a parabolic profile in the bulk region. Such inverted curvature is a distinctive signature of the coexistence between single-particle zero-temperature (noiseless) Langevin friction and collective hydrodynamics. The present mesoscopic model with spatially extended friction may offer a computationally efficient tool for future simulations of water transport in nanomaterials.
- Organisation(s)
- Computational and Soft Matter Physics
- External organisation(s)
- Università Degli Studi Roma Tre, Harvard University, Università degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata", Institute of Genetics and Biophysics "Adriano Buzzati-Traverso", CNR
- Journal
- Europhysics Letters
- Volume
- 116
- No. of pages
- 7
- ISSN
- 0295-5075
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/116/54002
- Publication date
- 12-2016
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103015 Condensed matter
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/93491db1-cf9a-4486-9c5d-3a9fe5a8d566