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Single-file transport of water molecules through a carbon nanotube
Alexander Berezhkovskii1, Gerhard Hummer
1Mathematical and Statistical Computing Laboratory, Center for Information Technology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. berezh@speck.niddk.nih.gov
Abstract:
Recent molecular dynamics simulations of water transport through the interior channel of a carbon nanotube in contact with an aqueous reservoir showed that conduction occurred in bursts with collective water motion. A continuous-time random-walk model is used to describe concerted transport through channels densely filled with molecules in a single-file arrangement, as also found in zeolites, as well as ion channels and aquaporins in biological membranes. Theoretical predictions for different collective properties of the single-file transport agree with the simulation results.