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Indexed by:Journal Papers

Date of Publication:2015-05-01

Journal:MICROFLUIDICS AND NANOFLUIDICS

Included Journals:SCIE、EI、Scopus

Volume:18

Issue:5-6

Page Number:1201-1207

ISSN No.:1613-4982

Key Words:Water; Carbon nanotubes; Controllable deformation; Dipole orientation; Molecular dynamics

Abstract:As a two-phase structure, the water-filled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been successfully observed and separated in laboratory, which provide an ideal choice for functional building blocks at nanoscale. In this paper, the controllable stretching of the water-filled CNTs with a pre-strain under electric fields is investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. The simulation results reveal that the stretching of straight water-filled CNTs slightly, but that of collapsed water-filled CNTs obviously, increases with the increase in the electric field intensity. At the similar level of pre-strain, the increase in the water filling density can promote the stretching of collapsed water-filled CNTs. As the pre-strain increases, a decrease can be found in the stretching of the collapsed water-filled CNTs with the same filling density. Moreover, the pre-strained water-filled CNTs can make a rapid and reversible response to the external electric field. The distributions of the dipole orientations of water molecules along the CNTs are utilized to elucidate the stretching mechanism. Our findings provide a feasible route for the design and fabrication of nanoscale switch and controller.