TY - JOUR
T1 - Light- and electric-field-controlled wetting behavior in nanochannels for regulating nanoconfined mass transport
AU - Xie, Ganhua
AU - Li, Pei
AU - Zhao, Zhiju
AU - Zhu, Zhongpeng
AU - Kong, Xiang Yu
AU - Zhang, Zhen
AU - Xiao, Kai
AU - Wen, Liping
AU - Jiang, Lei
PY - 2018/4/4
Y1 - 2018/4/4
N2 - Water wetting behavior in nanoconfined environments plays an important role in mass transport and signal transmission of organisms. It is valuable and challenging to investigate how water behaves in such a nanometer-scale with external stimuli, in particular with electric field and light. Unfortunately, the mechanism of hydrophobic reaction inside the nanospaces is still obscure and lacks experimental support for the current electric-field- or photoresponsive nanochannels which suffer from fragility or monofunctionality. Here, we design functionalized hydrophobic nanopores to regulate ion transport by light and electric field using azobenzene-derivatives-modified polymer nanochannels. With these addressable features, we can control the pore surface wetting behavior to switch the nanochannels between nonconducting and conducting states. Furthermore, we found these hydrophobic nanochannels are rough with a contact angle of 67.3°, making them extremely different from the familiar ones with a smooth pore surface and larger contact angles (>90°). These findings point to new opportunities for studying and manipulating water behavior in nanoconfined environments.
AB - Water wetting behavior in nanoconfined environments plays an important role in mass transport and signal transmission of organisms. It is valuable and challenging to investigate how water behaves in such a nanometer-scale with external stimuli, in particular with electric field and light. Unfortunately, the mechanism of hydrophobic reaction inside the nanospaces is still obscure and lacks experimental support for the current electric-field- or photoresponsive nanochannels which suffer from fragility or monofunctionality. Here, we design functionalized hydrophobic nanopores to regulate ion transport by light and electric field using azobenzene-derivatives-modified polymer nanochannels. With these addressable features, we can control the pore surface wetting behavior to switch the nanochannels between nonconducting and conducting states. Furthermore, we found these hydrophobic nanochannels are rough with a contact angle of 67.3°, making them extremely different from the familiar ones with a smooth pore surface and larger contact angles (>90°). These findings point to new opportunities for studying and manipulating water behavior in nanoconfined environments.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044946470&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/jacs.7b13136
DO - 10.1021/jacs.7b13136
M3 - Article
C2 - 29540056
AN - SCOPUS:85044946470
VL - 140
SP - 4552
EP - 4559
JO - Journal of the American Chemical Society
JF - Journal of the American Chemical Society
SN - 0002-7863
IS - 13
ER -