Rectified and Salt Concentration Dependent Wetting of Hydrophobic Nanopores
Nanopores lined with hydrophobic groups function as switches for water and all dissolved species, such that transport is allowed only when applying a sufficiently high transmembrane pressure difference or voltage. Here we show a hydrophobic nanopore system whose wetting and ability to transport wate...
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American Chemical Society
2024
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/157602 |
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| author | Polster, Jake W Aydin, Fikret de Souza, J Pedro Bazant, Martin Z Pham, Tuan Anh Siwy, Zuzanna S |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering Polster, Jake W Aydin, Fikret de Souza, J Pedro Bazant, Martin Z Pham, Tuan Anh Siwy, Zuzanna S |
| author_sort | Polster, Jake W |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Nanopores lined with hydrophobic groups function as switches for water and all dissolved species, such that transport is allowed only when applying a sufficiently high transmembrane pressure difference or voltage. Here we show a hydrophobic nanopore system whose wetting and ability to transport water and ions is rectified and can be controlled with salt concentration. The nanopore we study contains a junction between a hydrophobic zone and a positively charged hydrophilic zone. The nanopore is closed for transport at low salt concentrations and exhibits finite current only when the concentration reaches a threshold value that is dependent on the pore opening diameter, voltage polarity and magnitude, and type of electrolyte. The smallest nanopore studied here had a 4 nm diameter and did not open for transport in any concentration of KCl or KI examined. A 12 nm nanopore was closed for all KCl solutions but conducted current in KI at concentrations above 100 mM for negative voltages and opened for both voltage polarities at 500 mM KI. Nanopores with a hydrophobic/hydrophilic junction can thus function as diodes, such that one can identify a range of salt concentrations where the pores transport water and ions for only one voltage polarity. Molecular dynamics simulations together with continuum models provided a multiscale explanation of the observed phenomena and linked the salt concentration dependence of wetting with an electrowetting model. Results presented are crucial for designing next-generation chemical and ionic separation devices as well as understanding fundamental properties of hydrophobic interfaces under nanoconfinement. |
| first_indexed | 2025-02-19T04:24:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/157602 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-19T04:24:10Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | American Chemical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1576022025-01-03T04:23:17Z Rectified and Salt Concentration Dependent Wetting of Hydrophobic Nanopores Polster, Jake W Aydin, Fikret de Souza, J Pedro Bazant, Martin Z Pham, Tuan Anh Siwy, Zuzanna S Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics Nanopores lined with hydrophobic groups function as switches for water and all dissolved species, such that transport is allowed only when applying a sufficiently high transmembrane pressure difference or voltage. Here we show a hydrophobic nanopore system whose wetting and ability to transport water and ions is rectified and can be controlled with salt concentration. The nanopore we study contains a junction between a hydrophobic zone and a positively charged hydrophilic zone. The nanopore is closed for transport at low salt concentrations and exhibits finite current only when the concentration reaches a threshold value that is dependent on the pore opening diameter, voltage polarity and magnitude, and type of electrolyte. The smallest nanopore studied here had a 4 nm diameter and did not open for transport in any concentration of KCl or KI examined. A 12 nm nanopore was closed for all KCl solutions but conducted current in KI at concentrations above 100 mM for negative voltages and opened for both voltage polarities at 500 mM KI. Nanopores with a hydrophobic/hydrophilic junction can thus function as diodes, such that one can identify a range of salt concentrations where the pores transport water and ions for only one voltage polarity. Molecular dynamics simulations together with continuum models provided a multiscale explanation of the observed phenomena and linked the salt concentration dependence of wetting with an electrowetting model. Results presented are crucial for designing next-generation chemical and ionic separation devices as well as understanding fundamental properties of hydrophobic interfaces under nanoconfinement. 2024-11-18T20:21:37Z 2024-11-18T20:21:37Z 2022-07-06 2024-11-18T20:16:48Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/157602 Polster, Jake W, Aydin, Fikret, de Souza, J Pedro, Bazant, Martin Z, Pham, Tuan Anh et al. 2022. "Rectified and Salt Concentration Dependent Wetting of Hydrophobic Nanopores." Journal of the American Chemical Society, 144 (26). en 10.1021/jacs.2c03436 Journal of the American Chemical Society Creative Commons Attribution https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf American Chemical Society American Chemical Society |
| spellingShingle | Polster, Jake W Aydin, Fikret de Souza, J Pedro Bazant, Martin Z Pham, Tuan Anh Siwy, Zuzanna S Rectified and Salt Concentration Dependent Wetting of Hydrophobic Nanopores |
| title | Rectified and Salt Concentration Dependent Wetting of Hydrophobic Nanopores |
| title_full | Rectified and Salt Concentration Dependent Wetting of Hydrophobic Nanopores |
| title_fullStr | Rectified and Salt Concentration Dependent Wetting of Hydrophobic Nanopores |
| title_full_unstemmed | Rectified and Salt Concentration Dependent Wetting of Hydrophobic Nanopores |
| title_short | Rectified and Salt Concentration Dependent Wetting of Hydrophobic Nanopores |
| title_sort | rectified and salt concentration dependent wetting of hydrophobic nanopores |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/157602 |
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