Charge-tunable water transport through boron nitride nanotubes

Water transport across nanoscale channel is of great interest in biology, geology, and materials science. The boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) with different charge distributions were employed as a model to investigate the water transport in nanoscale channel through molecular dynamics simulations. It is found that the transport of water could influenced by the charge regulation in the terminal of BNNTs. If the diameter of BNNTs is small, the water permeation in charge-tunable BNNT(6,6) are mainly determined by transportation dynamics of water molecules located around the entrance and exit due to trap phenomenon. The trap phenomenon would be weaken with the increase of BNNTs' diameter, and the dynamics of water transportation through the BNNTs would be speeded up owing to the enhanced effect caused by the directional electric field and the relatively larger pore channel.