Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: Water-ion permselectivity of narrow-diameter carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Carbon nanotube (CNT) pores, which mimic the structure of the aquaporin channels, support extremely high water transport rates that make them strong candidates for building artificial water channels and high-performance membranes. Here, we measure water and ion permeation through 0.8-nm-diameter CNT porins (CNTPs)—short CNT segments embedded in lipid membranes—under optimized experimental conditions. Measured activation energy of water transport through the CNTPs agrees with the barrier values typical for single-file water transport. Well-tempered metadynamics simulations of water transport in CNTPs also report similar activation energy values and provide molecular-scale details of the mechanism for water entry into these channels. CNTPs strongly reject chloride ions and show water-salt permselectivity values comparable to those of commercial desalination membranes.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [1];  [4];  [4];  [3]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Materials Science Division, Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
  2. Materials Science Division, Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA., Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Design and Manufacture of Micro-Nano Biomedical Instruments, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China.
  3. Quantum Simulations Group, Materials Science Division, Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
  4. Materials Science Division, Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA., School of Natural Sciences, University of California Merced, Merced, CA 94343, USA.
  5. Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Design and Manufacture of Micro-Nano Biomedical Instruments, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China.
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1826848
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1712556
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-799504
Journal ID: ISSN 2375-2548; eaba9966
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0019112; AC52-07NA27344
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Science Advances
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Science Advances Journal Volume: 6 Journal Issue: 38; Journal ID: ISSN 2375-2548
Publisher:
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY

Citation Formats

Li, Yuhao, Li, Zhongwu, Aydin, Fikret, Quan, Jana, Chen, Xi, Yao, Yun-Chiao, Zhan, Cheng, Chen, Yunfei, Pham, Tuan Anh, and Noy, Aleksandr. Water-ion permselectivity of narrow-diameter carbon nanotubes. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aba9966.
Copy to clipboard
Li, Yuhao, Li, Zhongwu, Aydin, Fikret, Quan, Jana, Chen, Xi, Yao, Yun-Chiao, Zhan, Cheng, Chen, Yunfei, Pham, Tuan Anh, & Noy, Aleksandr. Water-ion permselectivity of narrow-diameter carbon nanotubes. United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba9966
Copy to clipboard
Li, Yuhao, Li, Zhongwu, Aydin, Fikret, Quan, Jana, Chen, Xi, Yao, Yun-Chiao, Zhan, Cheng, Chen, Yunfei, Pham, Tuan Anh, and Noy, Aleksandr. Fri . "Water-ion permselectivity of narrow-diameter carbon nanotubes". United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba9966.
Copy to clipboard
@article{osti_1826848,
title = {Water-ion permselectivity of narrow-diameter carbon nanotubes},
author = {Li, Yuhao and Li, Zhongwu and Aydin, Fikret and Quan, Jana and Chen, Xi and Yao, Yun-Chiao and Zhan, Cheng and Chen, Yunfei and Pham, Tuan Anh and Noy, Aleksandr},
abstractNote = {Carbon nanotube (CNT) pores, which mimic the structure of the aquaporin channels, support extremely high water transport rates that make them strong candidates for building artificial water channels and high-performance membranes. Here, we measure water and ion permeation through 0.8-nm-diameter CNT porins (CNTPs)—short CNT segments embedded in lipid membranes—under optimized experimental conditions. Measured activation energy of water transport through the CNTPs agrees with the barrier values typical for single-file water transport. Well-tempered metadynamics simulations of water transport in CNTPs also report similar activation energy values and provide molecular-scale details of the mechanism for water entry into these channels. CNTPs strongly reject chloride ions and show water-salt permselectivity values comparable to those of commercial desalination membranes.},
doi = {10.1126/sciadv.aba9966},
journal = {Science Advances},
number = 38,
volume = 6,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Sep 18 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Fri Sep 18 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
Copy to clipboard
Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba9966
Copyright Statement
Other availability
Search WorldCat Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Save / Share:
Export Metadata
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.

Works referenced in this record:

Forward and pressure retarded osmosis: potential solutions for global challenges in energy and water supply
journal, January 2013

  • Klaysom, Chalida; Cath, Tazhi Y.; Depuydt, Tom
  • Chemical Society Reviews, Vol. 42, Issue 16
  • DOI: 10.1039/c3cs60051c

The mobility of single-file water molecules is governed by the number of H-bonds they may form with channel-lining residues
journal, March 2015

  • Horner, Andreas; Zocher, Florian; Preiner, Johannes
  • Science Advances, Vol. 1, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1400083

Permselectivity limits of biomimetic desalination membranes
journal, June 2018

Enhanced flow in carbon nanotubes
journal, November 2005

  • Majumder, Mainak; Chopra, Nitin; Andrews, Rodney
  • Nature, Vol. 438, Issue 7064
  • DOI: 10.1038/438044a

Fast Mass Transport Through Sub-2-Nanometer Carbon Nanotubes
journal, May 2006

Molecular transport through membranes: Accurate permeability coefficients from multidimensional potentials of mean force and local diffusion constants
journal, August 2018

  • Sun, Rui; Han, Yining; Swanson, Jessica M. J.
  • The Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 149, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.5027004

Large-area graphene-nanomesh/carbon-nanotube hybrid membranes for ionic and molecular nanofiltration
journal, June 2019

Water permeability and water/salt selectivity tradeoff in polymers for desalination
journal, March 2011

Massive radius-dependent flow slippage in carbon nanotubes
journal, September 2016

  • Secchi, Eleonora; Marbach, Sophie; Niguès, Antoine
  • Nature, Vol. 537, Issue 7619
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature19315

Design Considerations for Artificial Water Channel–Based Membranes
journal, July 2018

Aquaporin water channels - from atomic structure to clinical medicine
journal, July 2002

Impact of PEG additives and pore rim functionalization on water transport through sub-1 nm carbon nanotube porins
journal, January 2018

  • Tunuguntla, Ramya H.; Hu, Andrew Y.; Zhang, Yuliang
  • Faraday Discussions, Vol. 209
  • DOI: 10.1039/C8FD00068A

QUANTUM ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials
journal, September 2009

  • Giannozzi, Paolo; Baroni, Stefano; Bonini, Nicola
  • Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 21, Issue 39, Article No. 395502
  • DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/21/39/395502

Fast Parallel Algorithms for Short-Range Molecular Dynamics
journal, March 1995

Transition-Tempered Metadynamics Is a Promising Tool for Studying the Permeation of Drug-like Molecules through Membranes
journal, September 2016

  • Sun, Rui; Dama, James F.; Tan, Jeffrey S.
  • Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, Vol. 12, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.6b00206

The Critical Need for Increased Selectivity, Not Increased Water Permeability, for Desalination Membranes
journal, March 2016

  • Werber, Jay R.; Deshmukh, Akshay; Elimelech, Menachem
  • Environmental Science & Technology Letters, Vol. 3, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.6b00050

Stochastic transport through carbon nanotubes in lipid bilayers and live cell membranes
journal, October 2014

  • Geng, Jia; Kim, Kyunghoon; Zhang, Jianfei
  • Nature, Vol. 514, Issue 7524
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature13817

Reconstitution of functional water channels in liposomes containing purified red cell CHIP28 protein
journal, August 1992

  • Zeidel, Mark L.; Ambudkar, Suresh V.; Smith, Barbara L.
  • Biochemistry, Vol. 31, Issue 33
  • DOI: 10.1021/bi00148a002

All-Atom Empirical Potential for Molecular Modeling and Dynamics Studies of Proteins †
journal, April 1998

  • MacKerell, A. D.; Bashford, D.; Bellott, M.
  • The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol. 102, Issue 18
  • DOI: 10.1021/jp973084f

Long-Wavelength Chloride-Sensitive Fluorescent Indicators
journal, May 1994

  • Biwersi, J.; Tulk, B.; Verkman, A. S.
  • Analytical Biochemistry, Vol. 219, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1006/abio.1994.1242

Water conduction through the hydrophobic channel of a carbon nanotube
journal, November 2001

  • Hummer, G.; Rasaiah, J. C.; Noworyta, J. P.
  • Nature, Vol. 414, Issue 6860
  • DOI: 10.1038/35102535

Designing Carbon Nanotube Membranes for Efficient Water Desalination
journal, February 2008

  • Corry, Ben
  • The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol. 112, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1021/jp709845u

Synthesis, lipid membrane incorporation, and ion permeability testing of carbon nanotube porins
journal, September 2016

  • Tunuguntla, Ramya H.; Escalada, Artur; A. Frolov, Vadim
  • Nature Protocols, Vol. 11, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1038/nprot.2016.119

Supported Lipid Bilayer Membranes for Water Purification by Reverse Osmosis
journal, May 2010

  • Kaufman, Yair; Berman, Amir; Freger, Viatcheslav
  • Langmuir, Vol. 26, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1021/la904411b

Why Are Carbon Nanotubes Fast Transporters of Water?
journal, February 2008

Effect of quantum partial charges on the structure and dynamics of water in single-walled carbon nanotubes
journal, September 2006

  • Won, Chang Y.; Joseph, Sony; Aluru, N. R.
  • The Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 125, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.2338305

Performance Limiting Effects in Power Generation from Salinity Gradients by Pressure Retarded Osmosis
journal, December 2011

  • Yip, Ngai Yin; Elimelech, Menachem
  • Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 45, Issue 23
  • DOI: 10.1021/es203197e

Anion and cation permeability of a chloride channel in rat hippocampal neurons.
journal, October 1987

  • Franciolini, F.; Nonner, W.
  • Journal of General Physiology, Vol. 90, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1085/jgp.90.4.453

Well-Tempered Metadynamics: A Smoothly Converging and Tunable Free-Energy Method
journal, January 2008

Enhanced water permeability and tunable ion selectivity in subnanometer carbon nanotube porins
journal, August 2017

  • Tunuguntla, Ramya H.; Henley, Robert Y.; Yao, Yun-Chiao
  • Science, Vol. 357, Issue 6353
  • DOI: 10.1126/science.aan2438

Large-scale single-chirality separation of single-wall carbon nanotubes by simple gel chromatography
journal, May 2011

  • Liu, Huaping; Nishide, Daisuke; Tanaka, Takeshi
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 2, Article No. 309
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1313

Artificial water channels – incipient innovative developments
journal, January 2016

Rapid fabrication of precise high-throughput filters from membrane protein nanosheets
journal, January 2020

Water Permeability and Mechanical Strength of Polyunsaturated Lipid Bilayers
journal, July 2000

Carbon Nanotube Porins in Amphiphilic Block Copolymers as Fully Synthetic Mimics of Biological Membranes
journal, October 2018

  • Sanborn, Jeremy R.; Chen, Xi; Yao, Yun-Chiao
  • Advanced Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 51
  • DOI: 10.1002/adma.201803355

Structural Determinants of Water Permeability through the Lipid Membrane
journal, December 2007

  • Mathai, John C.; Tristram-Nagle, Stephanie; Nagle, John F.
  • The Journal of General Physiology, Vol. 131, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1085/jgp.200709848

Structural and Vibrational Properties of Liquid Water from van der Waals Density Functionals
journal, August 2011

  • Zhang, Cui; Wu, Jun; Galli, Giulia
  • Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, Vol. 7, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1021/ct200329e

The OPLS [optimized potentials for liquid simulations] potential functions for proteins, energy minimizations for crystals of cyclic peptides and crambin
journal, March 1988

  • Jorgensen, William L.; Tirado-Rives, Julian
  • Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 110, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1021/ja00214a001

Hyperfast Water Transport through Biomimetic Nanochannels from Peptide-Attached (pR)-pillar[5]arene
journal, January 2019

Van der Waals Density Functional for General Geometries
journal, June 2004

Entropy and the driving force for the filling of carbon nanotubes with water
journal, June 2011

  • Pascal, T. A.; Goddard, W. A.; Jung, Y.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 108, Issue 29
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1108073108

Soft self-consistent pseudopotentials in a generalized eigenvalue formalism
journal, April 1990

Optical methods to measure membrane transport processes
journal, November 1995

  • Verkman, A. S.
  • The Journal of Membrane Biology, Vol. 148, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1007/BF00207267

High-Performance Reverse Osmosis CNT/Polyamide Nanocomposite Membrane by Controlled Interfacial Interactions
journal, January 2014

  • Kim, Hee Joong; Choi, Kwonyong; Baek, Youngbin
  • ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Vol. 6, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1021/am405398f

Mycolactone Toxin Membrane Permeation: Atomistic versus Coarse-Grained MARTINI Simulations
journal, July 2019

Polyamide membranes with nanoscale Turing structures for water purification
journal, May 2018

Quantification of Water Flux in Vesicular Systems
journal, June 2018

  • Hannesschläger, Christof; Barta, Thomas; Siligan, Christine
  • Scientific Reports, Vol. 8, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-26946-9

Highly permeable artificial water channels that can self-assemble into two-dimensional arrays
journal, July 2015

  • Shen, Yue-xiao; Si, Wen; Erbakan, Mustafa
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 112, Issue 32
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1508575112

Effects of ion concentration on the hydrogen bonded structure of water in the vicinity of ions in aqueous NaCl solutions
journal, January 2008

Escaping free-energy minima
journal, September 2002

  • Laio, A.; Parrinello, M.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 99, Issue 20
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.202427399

Specific ion effects at graphitic interfaces
journal, October 2019

Permeation of Halide Anions through Phospholipid Bilayers Occurs by the Solubility-Diffusion Mechanism
journal, January 1998

Science and technology for water purification in the coming decades
journal, March 2008

  • Shannon, Mark A.; Bohn, Paul W.; Elimelech, Menachem
  • Nature, Vol. 452, Issue 7185, p. 301-310
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature06599

Molecular Origin of Fast Water Transport in Carbon Nanotube Membranes: Superlubricity versus Curvature Dependent Friction
journal, October 2010

  • Falk, Kerstin; Sedlmeier, Felix; Joly, Laurent
  • Nano Letters, Vol. 10, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1021/nl1021046

Materials for next-generation desalination and water purification membranes
journal, April 2016

  • Werber, Jay R.; Osuji, Chinedum O.; Elimelech, Menachem
  • Nature Reviews Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1038/natrevmats.2016.18
    Sort by:
    [ × clear filter / sort ]

    Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections: