TY - JOUR
T1 - Enhanced water permeability and tunable ion selectivity in subnanometer carbon nanotube porins
AU - Tunuguntla, Ramya H.
AU - Henley, Robert Y.
AU - Yao, Yun Chiao
AU - Pham, Tuan Anh
AU - Wanunu, Meni
AU - Noy, Aleksandr
PY - 2017/8/25
Y1 - 2017/8/25
N2 - Fast water transport through carbon nanotube pores has raised the possibility to use them in the next generation of water treatment technologies. We report that water permeability in 0.8-nanometer-diameter carbon nanotube porins (CNTPs), which confine water down to a single-file chain, exceeds that of biological water transporters and of wider CNT pores by an order of magnitude. Intermolecular hydrogen-bond rearrangement, required for entry into the nanotube, dominates the energy barrier and can be manipulated to enhance water transport rates. CNTPs block anion transport, even at salinities that exceed seawater levels, and their ion selectivity can be tuned to configure them into switchable ionic diodes. These properties make CNTPs a promising material for developing membrane separation technologies.
AB - Fast water transport through carbon nanotube pores has raised the possibility to use them in the next generation of water treatment technologies. We report that water permeability in 0.8-nanometer-diameter carbon nanotube porins (CNTPs), which confine water down to a single-file chain, exceeds that of biological water transporters and of wider CNT pores by an order of magnitude. Intermolecular hydrogen-bond rearrangement, required for entry into the nanotube, dominates the energy barrier and can be manipulated to enhance water transport rates. CNTPs block anion transport, even at salinities that exceed seawater levels, and their ion selectivity can be tuned to configure them into switchable ionic diodes. These properties make CNTPs a promising material for developing membrane separation technologies.
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U2 - 10.1126/science.aan2438
DO - 10.1126/science.aan2438
M3 - Article
C2 - 28839070
AN - SCOPUS:85028449101
VL - 357
SP - 792
EP - 796
JO - Science
JF - Science
SN - 0036-8075
IS - 6353
ER -