Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Static charges cannot drive a continuous flow of water molecules through a carbon nanotube

Nature Nanotechnology volume 5, pages 555–557 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

To the Editor

Charge groups are commonly used to speed up MD simulations of systems that contain explicit electric charges. The basic idea is that a selected number of charges from different atoms in a molecule can be combined into a charge group. Although the interactions between the individual charges belonging to different groups are computed, the locations of charge groups are defined by the averages of their coordinates (see ref. 2 for a detailed account). Gong et al. treated the water molecules in their simulations individually, but the three charges along the nanotube were included in the same charge group. (We have examined their initial settings.) When we repeated the simulation without charge groups, the flow was not observed (Fig. 1).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Cumulative flux of water molecules as a function of time for two different MD simulations of the system shown in the inset.
Figure 2: Cumulative flux of water molecules as a function of time for five different MD simulations of the system shown in the inset to Fig. 1.

References

  1. Gong, X. J. et al. Nature Nanotech. 2, 709–712 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hess, B., Kutzner, C., van der Spoel, D. & Lindahl, E. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 4, 435–447 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. de Groot, B. L. & Grubmüller, H. Science 294, 2353–2357 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Hinds, B. Nature Nanotech. 2, 673–674 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Berendsen, H. J. C., Postma, J. P. M., van Gunsteren, W. F., DiNole, A. & Haak, J. R. J. Chem. Phys. 81, 3684–3690 (1981).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Bussi, G., Donadio, D. & Parrinello, M. J. Chem. Phys. 126, 014101 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Morishita, T. J. Chem. Phys. 113, 2976–2982 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Bonthuis, D. J., Horinek, D., Bocquet, L. & Netz, R. R. Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 144503 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Leyssale, J-M. & Vignoles, G. L. Chem. Phys. Lett. 454, 299–304 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Shiomi, J. & Maruyama, S. Nanotechnology 20, 055708 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Landauer, R. J. Stat. Phys. 53, 233–248 (1988).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Darden, T., York, D. & Pedersen, L. J. Chem. Phys. 98, 10089–10092 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Zuo, G., Shen, R., Ma, S. & Guo, W. ACS Nano 4, 205–210 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Phillips, J. C. et al. J. Comput. Chem. 26, 1781–1802 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Ferrenberg, A. M., Landau, D. P. & Wong, Y. J. Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 3382–3384 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Miller, G. Science 314, 1856–1857 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Patra, M. et al. Biophys. J. 84, 3636–3645 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Jirasak Wong-ekkabut and Markus S. Miettinen: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Mathematics, The University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond St. N., London, N6A 5B7, Ontario, Canada

    Jirasak Wong-ekkabut & Mikko Karttunen

  2. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, 50 Phahon Yothin Rd, Chatuchak, Bangkok, 10900, Thailand

    Jirasak Wong-ekkabut

  3. Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24–25, Potsdam-Golm, 14476, Germany

    Markus S. Miettinen

  4. Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A8, Canada

    Cristiano Dias

Authors
  1. Jirasak Wong-ekkabut
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Markus S. Miettinen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Cristiano Dias
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mikko Karttunen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mikko Karttunen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wong-ekkabut, J., Miettinen, M., Dias, C. et al. Static charges cannot drive a continuous flow of water molecules through a carbon nanotube. Nature Nanotech 5, 555–557 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.152

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.152

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing