LOADING, CHARGING AND THERMAL EFFECTS ON THE MECHANISM OF WATER–CARBON NANOTUBE TRANSMISSION

Abstract

In this paper, the transmission mechanism of a charge-controlled water–carbon nanotubes (CNTs) fluidic transmitting nanodevice is investigated by using molecular dynamics simulation with the loading, charging and thermal effects on the starting process being considered. The results show that the external load on the driven CNT can slow down the startup speed of the nanotransmission while the transmitting stability is better than that in non-loading transmitting process. The startup speed of the water–CNTs transmission increases with the increase in the charge magnitude on CNTs since the charges on CNT atoms can increase the water–CNT interfacial coupling strength. The control of the water temperature can also affect the startup speed of the driven CNT attributed to the thermal effect on the slip velocity of confined water. The configuration, dynamic motion behaviors and temperature of the confined water in both the starting and steady transmitting processes are studied to understand the thermo-electromechanical coupling effects on the transmission mechanism of the water–CNTs charge-controlled fluidic transmitting nanodevice.