Letter abstract
Nature Nanotechnology 2, 709 - 712 (2007)
Published online: 21 October 2007 | doi:10.1038/nnano.2007.320
Subject Categories: Nanofluidics | Computational nanotechnology
A charge-driven molecular water pump
Xiaojing Gong1,2, Jingyuan Li3, Hangjun Lu1,2,4, Rongzheng Wan1, Jichen Li5, Jun Hu1,6 & Haiping Fang1
Abstract
Understanding and controlling the transport of water across nanochannels is of great importance for designing novel molecular devices, machines and sensors and has wide applications1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, including the desalination of seawater5. Nanopumps driven by electric or magnetic fields can transport ions10, 11 and magnetic quanta12, but water is charge-neutral and has no magnetic moment. On the basis of molecular dynamics simulations, we propose a design for a molecular water pump. The design uses a combination of charges positioned adjacent to a nanopore and is inspired by the structure of channels in the cellular membrane that conduct water in and out of the cell (aquaporins). The remarkable pumping ability is attributed to the charge dipole-induced ordering of water confined in the nanochannels13, 14, where water can be easily driven by external fields in a concerted fashion. These findings may provide possibilities for developing water transport devices that function without osmotic pressure or a hydrostatic pressure gradient.
- Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 800-204, Shanghai 201800, China
- Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China
- Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
- Department of Physics, Zhejiang Normal University, 321004, Jinhua, China
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester M60 1QD, UK
- Bio-X Life Sciences Research Center, College of Life Science and Technology, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Correspondence to: Jun Hu1,6 e-mail: jhu@sjtu.edu.cn
Correspondence to: Haiping Fang1 e-mail: fanghaiping@sinap.ac.cn
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