Summary of massive radius

dependent flow slippage in

carbon nanotubes [1] Assignment
wk. 3

Concepts of Nano chemistry 2

Minor Nanotechnology

D. Jonker
TN2
G. Reijerink
Saxion 2016

1 Contents
1

Introduction...................................................................................................... 1

Theory.............................................................................................................. 1

Summary of the paper..................................................................................... 2

Conclusion........................................................................................................ 3

Final words....................................................................................................... 3

References....................................................................................................... 4

2 Introduction.
This paper contains a summary of an
article selected by a student in
nanotechnologies. This summary is
part of a series of assignments which
have to be made in favor of the
course concepts of Nano chemistry 2.
During this paper first a small
theoretical explanation shall be given
about the parameters that have been
used
so
that
some
physical
understanding can be developed.
After that a summary of the paper
shall be given from which a
conclusion will be derived.
Through research is found that water
moves through carbon nanotubes at
exceptionally high rates owing to
nearly frictionless interfaces. Interest
for this particular behavior has grown
for applications within desalination,
Nano-filtration
and
energy
harvesting. One can think of the
possibilities of fluid systems wherein
friction forces with the walls can be
controlled to have a minimal
influence on the behavior of the fluid
flow,
therefore
resulting
in
a
minimum of losses.

1 Theory.
Some terms that are used in the
paper deserve some clarification
before the paper can be truly
understood. In the paper different
setups
are
characterized
and
evaluated based on parameters such
as the permeability and the slip
length.
In the paper the permeability is
defined by:

v NT =

k NT P
(1)
LT

Which relates the average fluid

velocity inside the nanotube, vNT, to

the pressure difference, P, by the

viscosity, , the length of the tube,
LT, and the permeability of the tube.
Here permeability thus means a
scaling factor which relates the
average fluid velocity to the pressure
difference and thus implicates how
well the nanotube channel conducts
the flow. A higher value of kNT would
mean a higher average fluid velocity
based on applied pressure difference,
tube length and fluid dependent
viscosity. During the paper the
permeability that gets introduced in
the plot is a non-dimensional
parameter. Where the ratio is taken
by the determined value of k NT to a
reference no-slip condition value k.
No-slip means that a fluid has
maximum
interaction
with
the
boundary layer (wall). A wall is a nonmoving boundary layer. Fluid flow is
governed by a set of differential
equations known as the NavierStokes equations which only give
solutions when one states exact
solutions at boundary layers which
are called boundary conditions [2].
From this boundary conditions,
solutions can be found which dictate
the behavior of your model. A no-slip
boundary condition thus means that
a fluid flow has a velocity of zero at
the walls. If one would not impose
such a condition a discontinuity could
result in a non-soluble equation.
Most of the time models like the
Navier-Stokes
equations
are
introduced to solve for a form of
mass flow (fluid flow) inside a known
geometry. These results often imply a
set of solutions that dictate the
distribution of fluid speeds within a
fluid channel.
In figure 1 an example is found of
such a distribution. Here one can see
the difference between the no slip
flow and the flow with slip. For a flow
3

with slip a slip length has to be

introduced
with
extrapolates
a
distance from the physical wall for
which the fluid flow still reaches a
zero velocity, slp.

Figure 1: Example of a distribution of fluid

flows inside a channel with a no slip condition
(left) and a slip condition (right).

The difference between the left side

and right side of figure 1 can then be
seen in the parabolic distribution of
the velocities (vectors). In general
the right side with the flow with slip
seems to have a higher average
velocity based on the higher speeds
(longer vectors) inside the middle of
the channel and a non-zero speed at
the edges of the channel. Be careful
not to interpret the vectors outside
the channel as fluid moving through
the boundary layer. This is just to
make the example of the fluid
velocity distribution a little bit more
clear. From this one can conclude
that a larger slip length will result in
a higher value for the average
velocity of the channel. Or in other
words a higher average velocity for
the same pressure difference and
thus indicates less losses inside the
system.

2 Summary of the paper.

Research in the paper has been
conducted for many reasons. The
most important ones are:

Existing
theories
do
not
provide a correct explanation
for the available experimental
results.
The exact mechanisms of
water
transport
inside
nanotubes and at the watercarbon interface is still an
unknown issue.

Two materials where investigated,

carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and boron
nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) for which
different
geometries
where
introduced. The geometry was varied
in tube diameter and tube length. In
the past different setups were
introduced in order to quantitatively
measure the fluid flow inside CNTs
but
measurement
sensitivity
remained an issue. Now researchers
have seemed to found a way to do
this by focusing on the flow of a fluid
jet outside a nanotube.
The next obstacle was to measure
flow through a single nanotube.
Which was achieved by designing a
nanofluidic needle capable of doing
so. It basically came down on
directing a single nanotube into a
small glass capillary by means of a
SEM and a Nano manipulator.
The results of the measurements
were compared to results generated
with the Landau-Squire solution of
the
Navier-Stokes
equation.
Researchers
found
that
the
measurements of the flow fields
around single nanotubes agree well
with the Landau-Squire prediction
which indicates a correct model.
Then results of the measurement on
different
materials
have
been
compared based on their nondimensional permeability and their
slip length.

3 Conclusion.
It turns out that the measurements
for the CNT indicate that the
permeability and the slip length are
strongly dependent to the inverse of
the internal radius of the nanotube
where for the BNNTs this is not the
case as can be seen in figure 2.
Some interesting conclusions can be
drawn from this results.
From a theoretical perspective, the
transport behavior of water inside
CNTs has been the subject of
numerous studies, mostly using
molecular
dynamics
simulations
Radius-dependent
slippage
was
predicted inside CNTs. The results
presented confirm the predicted
trend, but the measured slip lengths
exceed the numerical predictions.
This discrepancy suggests that
molecular dynamic simulations do
not
represent
the
interfacial
dynamics well at a quantitative level.
A second feature is the different
behavior of CNTs and BNNTs, with the
latter
showing
no
substantial
slippage of water. The comparison is
illuminating because CNTs and BNNTs
have the same crystallography, but
radically
different
electronic
properties, with CNTs being semimetallic and BNNTs insulating. The
differences in flow behavior must
therefore originate in subtle atomic-

scale details of the solidliquid

interface, including the electronic
structure of the confining material.
Figure 2: Permeability and slip length of
individual CNTs and BNNTs. a, Normalized
permeability (kNT/kno_slip ref ) of CNTs
(green) and BNNTs(blue) as a function of
nanotube radius Rt. The permeability of the
BNNTs. b, Dependence of the experimentally
determined slip length inside CNTs (green)
and BNNTs (blue) on Rt.

4 Final words
The reason why this paper deserved
a small summary is the implications
it has on pre-paper constructed
understanding about fluid flow in
mesoscale regimes. This once more
gives a clear example about how
macroscopic
well
understood
behavior like flow all of a sudden
changes
significantly
as
one
approaches quantum mechanical
limits. Through my interpretation it
seems no more than logical that
electron configuration once more
shows its importance in regions
where the surface dictates most of
the available space.

5 References
[1] S. M. A. N. D. S. A. S. &. L. B. Eleonora Secchi, "Massive radius-dependent flow
slippage in carbon nanotubes," Nature, vol. 537, pp. 210-213, 2016.
[2] "Navier-Stokes equations," wikipedia, [Online]. Available:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navier%E2%80%93Stokes_equations. [Accessed
19 12 2016].