Nanofluidics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Continuous-flow biocatalysis with immobilized enzymes is a sustainable route for chemical synthesis, but inadequate biocatalytic efficiency caused by non-productive enzyme immobilization or enzyme-carrier mismatches presents a challenge for its application. Here, the authors report an approach for the fabrication of a high-performance enzymatic continuous-flow reactor via integrating scalable isoporous block copolymer membranes as carriers with an oriented one-step enzyme immobilization via a genetically fused material binding peptide.

    • Zhenzhen Zhang
    • , Liang Gao
    •  & Volker Abetz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Designing efficient nanoscale and adaptable bioinspired memristors remains a challenge. Here, the authors develop a bioinspired hydrophobically gated memristive nanopore capable of learning, forgetting, and retaining memory through an electrowetting mechanism.

    • Gonçalo Paulo
    • , Ke Sun
    •  & Alberto Giacomello

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Manipulation of nano-sized extracellular vesicles are of significant interest for disease detection, monitoring, and therapeutics, yet it is still challenging to expedite the process. Here, the authors presented geometry-induced electrohydrodynamic tweezers, which enable fast parallel transport and trapping of single vesicle within seconds.

    • Chuchuan Hong
    •  & Justus C. Ndukaife

  • Article
    | Open Access

    'Covalent modification, while tuning the channel size and functionality, disrupts the structure of 2D membranes. Here the authors demonstrate controllable and selective mass transport, via nondisruptive non-covalent modification of sub-1-nm MXene channels, enabled by nanoconfinement effect.

    • Yuan Kang
    • , Ting Hu
    •  & Xiwang Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Addressing mass and electron transfer challenges hinders practical application of photoelectrochemical (PEC) devices. Here, authors report a simulation-guided development of hierarchical triphase diffusion photoelectrodes, achieving an improved mass transfer and ensuring electron transfer for PEC gas/liquid flow conversion.

    • Xiangyu Meng
    • , Chuntong Zhu
    •  & Yujie Xiong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carbon nanotubes are promising candidates for transport of ions and charges, but the response of carbon nanotubes under osmotic forcings is not well explored. Here the authors report enhanced ion-specific osmotic transport in individual double-walled carbon nanotubes.

    • Guandong Cui
    • , Zhi Xu
    •  & Ming Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the behaviors of droplets at nanoscales is crucial to many applications, yet it remains experimentally challenging to track them in real time. Here, Sbarra et al. use a miniature optomechanical resonator to probe the evaporation dynamics of attoliter droplets with millisecond resolution.

    • Samantha Sbarra
    • , Louis Waquier
    •  & Ivan Favero

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanoporous 2D materials have shown promising potential for ion sieving applications due to their physical and chemical properties. Here authors develop a heterogeneous graphene-based polyethylene terephthalate nanochannel with ion sieving ability that is controlled by adjusting the applied voltage.

    • Shihao Su
    • , Yifan Zhang
    •  & Jianming Xue

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Open microfluidics enables precise positioning of liquid sample with direct channel access. Here, authors demonstrate a geometrical solution for actively manipulating open microchannels using a wireless radio frequency signal.

    • Christopher T. Ertsgaard
    • , Daehan Yoo
    •  & Sang-Hyun Oh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Materials for the selective transport of K+ have application in a variety of fields including water desalination and separation processes. Here the authors report charged porous subnanometer cages that are inspired in biological KcsA channels; high K+ transport rates and high K+/Li+ and K+/Na+ selectivity ratios are obtained, showing great potential in advanced sieving processes and efficient water treatments.

    • Weiwen Xin
    • , Jingru Fu
    •  & Liping Wen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The manipulation of nano-objects in liquid environments is relevant for sensor systems, chemical design, and screening in medical applications. The authors propose an approach to manipulate nano-objects based on nanoscale hydrodynamic boundary flows induced by optical heat generation.

    • Martin Fränzl
    •  & Frank Cichos

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors expanded interlayer spaces in graphite by intercalating aqueous KCl ions utilizing an electric field. It exhibited salt rejection efficiencies >99% and high water permeation rates, a property very useful for desalination.

    • Saini Lalita
    • , Nemala Siva Sankar
    •  & Kalon Gopinadhan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Flow through nanometer scale channels facilitates an unmasked study of water-surface molecular interactions. Here, Keerthi et al. show with conduits made from graphite and hexagonal boron nitride that strong hydrophobicity does not rule out enhanced stickiness and friction.

    • Ashok Keerthi
    • , Solleti Goutham
    •  & Boya Radha

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanofluidic channels offer the possibility to process small molecules or colloids, but transport control meets serious challenges. Seo et al. use evaporation-driven advective flow to establish a versatile manipulation scheme of the fluid carrier, disposing of external connectors.

    • Sangjin Seo
    • , Dogyeong Ha
    •  & Taesung Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling ion transport in nanofluidics is fundamental to numerous material applications but designing a material for ion selection is challenging. Here the authors report a confined van der Waals graphene oxide membrane as cation selective channel for energy generation inspired by neuron electromotive force.

    • Sungsoon Kim
    • , Sangjin Choi
    •  & Wooyoung Shim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atomically thin porous graphene is promising for filtration and sieving applications. Here the authors, using a laser-actuated micro-drum device of bilayer graphene with controlled number of nanopores, and measuring the permeation rate of different gases, show that it can also be used for permeation-based sensing.

    • I. E. Rosłoń
    • , R. J. Dolleman
    •  & P. G. Steeneken

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Printing small droplets for a wide range of applications remains a challenge. Here, the authors propose a simple drop-on-demand printing technique which replaces the use of a nozzle with a sieve, enabling printing of nanoparticle suspension with 71% mass-loading, performed for surface tension range of 72–32 mNm-1 and viscosity up to 33 mPas.

    • Chandantaru Dey Modak
    • , Arvind Kumar
    •  & Prosenjit Sen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exosomes are used as disease biomarkers, but their characterization in biological samples is challenging. Here the authors achieve simultaneous characterization of size and zeta potential of individual nanoparticles and particle mixtures at physiological salinity conditions, exploiting a salt gradient in a capillary channel.

    • Martin K. Rasmussen
    • , Jonas N. Pedersen
    •  & Rodolphe Marie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dimensions and the surface properties of the nanochannels are vital to the functions and applications of nano-fluidic devices. Here Ma et al. studied the film thickness of a Bretherton bubble in a microcapillary and demonstrate the liquid film can be used for label-free biosensing.

    • Yu Ma
    • , Miao Sun
    •  & Yanbo Xie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Designing optofluidic nano/microsystems to realize large-scale Boolean circuits remains a challenge. Here, the authors propose a flexible optofluidic framework to perform binary computations with an integrated piezophototronic mechanism controlling the optofluidic switching of logic gates (PPOF).

    • Yuvasree Purusothaman
    • , Nagamalleswara Rao Alluri
    •  & Sang-Jae Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Natural leaves can purify water under sunlight through a combination of osmotic pressure, transpiration, and guttation effects. Here the authors design a composite material mimicking these combined effects, achieving sunlight-driven pure water production from brine with high collection rate.

    • Hongya Geng
    • , Qiang Xu
    •  & Chun Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ionic transport through subnanometer-sized channels in 2D material-based membranes can be exploited for energy and separation applications. Here the authors demonstrate the visible light activation of an ultrafast ionic flux against a concentration gradient in graphene oxide membranes.

    • Jinlei Yang
    • , Xiaoyu Hu
    •  & Wei Guo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Graphene with nanowindows can have 1000 times higher permeability and four times the selectivity for air separation than conventional membranes, Vallejos-Burgos et al. reveal by molecular simulation, due to flexibility at the nanoscale and thermal vibrations of the nanowindows' functional groups.

    • Fernando Vallejos-Burgos
    • , François-Xavier Coudert
    •  & Katsumi Kaneko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dispensing small droplets is essential to many ink printing, chemical and biological technologies, but the conventional orifice-based methods fail when the size of droplets approaches sub-micrometre range. Here, Zhang et al.show dispensing of viscous droplets down to attolitre in a controllable way.

    • Yanzhen Zhang
    • , Benliang Zhu
    •  & Gunther Wittstock

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The great demand for freshwater for sustaining life on Earth calls for smart solutions to purify ocean water with minimal energy consumption. Here, Park et al. show a passive desalination method via ion concentration polarization generated by capillary-driven flow through ion-selective hydrogels.

    • Sungmin Park
    • , Yeonsu Jung
    •  & Sung Jae Kim

  • Article |

    Two-dimensional materials can be used to construct nanofluidic channels to study molecular transport. Here the authors report a lamellar membrane constructed from exfoliated layers of a clay mineral, which exhibits high proton conductivity and extraordinary thermal stability.

    • Jiao-Jing Shao
    • , Kalyan Raidongia
    •  & Jiaxing Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Shale gas and oil are trapped in nanoscale porous networks of ultra-low permeability. Here, the authors develop a molecular model of alkane transport through nanoporous materials, showing that the mechanisms controlling flow at the nanoscale lead to a simple scaling of permeance with hydrocarbon size and density.

    • Kerstin Falk
    • , Benoit Coasne
    •  & Lydéric Bocquet

  • Article |

    Cracks in material are not always unwanted; sometimes, they can be manipulated to produce micro and nanoscale patterns. Here, Kim et al. report a cracking-assisted nanofabrication technique based on conventional photolithography process, which allows accurate control over the geometry of the nanopatterns in arbitrary shape.

    • Minseok Kim
    • , Dogyeong Ha
    •  & Taesung Kim

  • Article |

    Nanobubbles in liquid phase are puzzling, because their internal pressure is estimated to be unphysically large. Here, Shin et al. visualize the dynamics of nanobubbles in water encapsulated by graphene membrane and show fast gas diffusion through ultrathin water layer between two coalescing bubbles.

    • Dongha Shin
    • , Jong Bo Park
    •  & Konstantin S Novoselov

  • Article |

    Nanofluidic diodes are utilized for the rectification of ionic transport, but their rectifying properties cannot be altered after the devices are made. Here, a field-effect reconfigurable nanofluidic diode is reported in which the forward direction and the degree of rectification can be modulated by a gate voltage.

    • Weihua Guan
    • , Rong Fan
    •  & Mark A. Reed

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