Water flow in carbon nanotubes: the role of tube chirality

We investigated the effects of the chirality of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on water transport using molecular dynamics simulations. For the study, we considered CNTs with similar diameter and varying chiralities, obtained by altering the chiral indices (n,m) of the nanotubes. The tubes with an armchair (n = m) structure show the maximum streaming velocity, flux, flow rate enhancement and slip length, whereas the corresponding values are lower for chiral (n ≠ m) tubes, and are the lowest in zigzag (m = 0) CNTs. The difference in flow rates with varying tube structures can be primarily attributed to the alteration in potential energy landscape experienced by the water molecules, leading to changes in the friction coefficient at the fluid–solid interface. The water molecules experienced the least resistance to flow in an armchair tube, while the force exerted by the CNT surface on the water molecules increased monotonically with the change in the CNT type to chiral and then to zigzag. The chirality effects on water transport are, however, found to decrease with an increase in tube diameter. Furthermore, an analysis of the influence of the CNT type on ion (Na+ or Cl−) transport in water-filled CNTs showed the interaction energy of ions with water to be much higher than that with the CNT surface, demonstrating minimal dependence of ion transport on the chiral structure. Hence, the tube chirality should be considered an ineludible factor in controlling the water transport through CNTs and in the designing of novel devices in nanotechnology.