Scaling of electrokinetic transport in nanometer channels

Electrokinetic transport is a popular transport mechanism used in nanofluidic systems, and understanding its scaling behavior is important for the design and optimization of nanofluidic devices. In this article, we report on the scaling of electroosmotic flow and ionic conductivity in positively charged slit nanochannels by using continuum and atomistic simulations. The effects of confinement and surface charge are discussed in detail. In particular, we found that the viscosity of the interfacial water increases substantially as the surface charge density increases and the electrophoretic mobility of the interfacial ions decreases. We show that such effects can influence the scaling of the electrokinetic transport in confined nanochannels significantly.