Dipole alignment of water molecules flowing through a carbon nanotube

The flow of water through nanochannels has promising applications in desalination, energy conversion, and nanomedicine. We have used molecular dynamics simulations to show that the molecules passing a wide single-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) get aligned by net dipole moment along direction. With increasing velocity, first increases eventually saturates constant value. This behavior is similar an Ising chain with velocity acting as effective aligning field. microscopic origin this preferential entry their vectors pointing inward CNT axis.