Surface charge governs nanoscale aqueous electrolyte transport, both in engineered analytical systems and in biological entities such as ion channels and ion pumps as a function of ion type and concentration. Embedded electrodes in a nanofluidic channel, isolated from the fluid in the channel by a dielectric layer, act as active, tunable gates to systematically modify local surface charge densi...

Studies in the last two decades have demonstrated the use of protein biomarkers for early disease detection. Increasingly, these biomarkers have been found at very low concentrations with a high background of abundant proteins. Recent work in nanofluidics has allowed for the possibility of high concentration enhancement and separation – two processes that are essential for the detection and dis...

Molecular dynamics simulation of annular flow boiling in a nanochannel with 70000 particles is numerically investigated. In this research, an annular flow model is developed to predict the superheated flow boiling heat transfer characteristics in a nanochannel. To characterize the forced annular boiling flow in a nanochannel, an external driving force ext F ranging from 1to12PN (PN= Pico Newton...

Implantable devices may provide a superior means for hormone delivery through maintaining serum levels within target therapeutic windows. Zero-order administration has been shown to reach an equilibrium with metabolic clearance, resulting in a constant serum concentration and bioavailability of released hormones. By exploiting surface-to-molecule interaction within nanochannel membranes, it is ...

Conductance characteristics of nanofluidic channels (nanochannels) fall into two regimes: at low ionic concentrations, conductance is governed by surface charge while at high ionic concentrations it is determined by nanochannel geometry and bulk ionic concentration. We used aminosilane chemistry and streptavidin-biotin binding to study the effects of surface reactions on nanochannel conductance...

The purpose of this study is to investigate the flow of viscoelastic fluid through a slit polyelectrolyte-grafted (PE-grafted) nanochannel under applied alternating current (AC) electric field. The PE-grafted nanochannel (also called a soft nanochannel) is represented by a rigid surface coated by a polyelectrolyte layer (PEL) in a brush-like configuration. By solving linearized Poisson–Boltzman...

We demonstrate the role of selectivity variation in the structure of the nonequilibrium extended space charge using one-dimensional analytic and two-dimensional numerical Poisson-Nernst-Planck models for the electro-diffusive transport of a symmetric electrolyte. This provides a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanism behind a previously observed maximum in the resistance-voltage curve...

In this study, based on ion-current rectification in the conically shaped nanochannel embedded in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membrane, we have selectively discriminated three small biomolecules. Because three positive biomolecules (Hoechst 33342, Propidium and Bupivacaine) have different hydrophobicities, their interactions with inside wall of the conical nanochannel are different and the...