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Brief Communications

Nature 438, 44 (3 November 2005) | doi:10.1038/438044a; Published online 2 November 2005

There is an Erratum (15 December 2005) associated with this document.

Nanoscale hydrodynamics: Enhanced flow in carbon nanotubes

Mainak Majumder1, Nitin Chopra1, Rodney Andrews2 & Bruce J. Hinds1

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Nanoscale structures that could mimic the selective transport and extraordinarily fast flow possible in biological cellular channels would have a wide range of potential applications. Here we show that liquid flow through a membrane composed of an array of aligned carbon nanotubes is four to five orders of magnitude faster than would be predicted from conventional fluid-flow theory. This high fluid velocity results from an almost frictionless interface at the carbon-nanotube wall.