Breakdown of Fast Water Transport in Graphene Oxides

Abstract

Fast slip flow was reported for water inside the interlayer gallery between graphene layers or carbon nanotubes. We report here that this flow rate enhancement (over two orders) breaks down with the presence of chemical functionalization and relaxation of the nanoconfinement in graphene oxides. Molecular dynamics simulation results show that hydrodynamics applies in this circumstance, even at length scales down to nanometers. However, corrections on the slip boundary condition and viscosity of nanoconfined flow must be included to make quantitative predictions. These results were discussed with structural characteristics of the liquid water and hydrogen bond networks.