Cargando…
Selective filling of n-hexane in a tight nanopore
Molecular sieving may occur when two molecules compete for a nanopore. In nearly all known examples, the nanopore is larger than the molecule that selectively enters the pore. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the ability of single-wall carbon nanotubes with a van der Waals pore size of 0.42 nm to...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7804426/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33436629 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20587-1 |
_version_ | 1783636161432911872 |
---|---|
author | Qu, Haoran Rayabharam, Archith Wu, Xiaojian Wang, Peng Li, Yunfeng Fagan, Jeffrey Aluru, Narayana R. Wang, YuHuang |
author_facet | Qu, Haoran Rayabharam, Archith Wu, Xiaojian Wang, Peng Li, Yunfeng Fagan, Jeffrey Aluru, Narayana R. Wang, YuHuang |
author_sort | Qu, Haoran |
collection | PubMed |
description | Molecular sieving may occur when two molecules compete for a nanopore. In nearly all known examples, the nanopore is larger than the molecule that selectively enters the pore. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the ability of single-wall carbon nanotubes with a van der Waals pore size of 0.42 nm to separate n-hexane from cyclohexane—despite the fact that both molecules have kinetic diameters larger than the rigid nanopore. This unexpected finding challenges our current understanding of nanopore selectivity and how molecules may enter a tight channel. Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations reveal that n-hexane molecules stretch by nearly 11.2% inside the nanotube pore. Although at a relatively low probability (28.5% overall), the stretched state of n-hexane does exist in the bulk solution, allowing the molecule to enter the tight pore even at room temperature. These insights open up opportunities to engineer nanopore selectivity based on the molecular degrees of freedom. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7804426 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-78044262021-01-21 Selective filling of n-hexane in a tight nanopore Qu, Haoran Rayabharam, Archith Wu, Xiaojian Wang, Peng Li, Yunfeng Fagan, Jeffrey Aluru, Narayana R. Wang, YuHuang Nat Commun Article Molecular sieving may occur when two molecules compete for a nanopore. In nearly all known examples, the nanopore is larger than the molecule that selectively enters the pore. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the ability of single-wall carbon nanotubes with a van der Waals pore size of 0.42 nm to separate n-hexane from cyclohexane—despite the fact that both molecules have kinetic diameters larger than the rigid nanopore. This unexpected finding challenges our current understanding of nanopore selectivity and how molecules may enter a tight channel. Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations reveal that n-hexane molecules stretch by nearly 11.2% inside the nanotube pore. Although at a relatively low probability (28.5% overall), the stretched state of n-hexane does exist in the bulk solution, allowing the molecule to enter the tight pore even at room temperature. These insights open up opportunities to engineer nanopore selectivity based on the molecular degrees of freedom. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-01-12 /pmc/articles/PMC7804426/ /pubmed/33436629 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20587-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Qu, Haoran Rayabharam, Archith Wu, Xiaojian Wang, Peng Li, Yunfeng Fagan, Jeffrey Aluru, Narayana R. Wang, YuHuang Selective filling of n-hexane in a tight nanopore |
title | Selective filling of n-hexane in a tight nanopore |
title_full | Selective filling of n-hexane in a tight nanopore |
title_fullStr | Selective filling of n-hexane in a tight nanopore |
title_full_unstemmed | Selective filling of n-hexane in a tight nanopore |
title_short | Selective filling of n-hexane in a tight nanopore |
title_sort | selective filling of n-hexane in a tight nanopore |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7804426/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33436629 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20587-1 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT quhaoran selectivefillingofnhexaneinatightnanopore AT rayabharamarchith selectivefillingofnhexaneinatightnanopore AT wuxiaojian selectivefillingofnhexaneinatightnanopore AT wangpeng selectivefillingofnhexaneinatightnanopore AT liyunfeng selectivefillingofnhexaneinatightnanopore AT faganjeffrey selectivefillingofnhexaneinatightnanopore AT alurunarayanar selectivefillingofnhexaneinatightnanopore AT wangyuhuang selectivefillingofnhexaneinatightnanopore |