Viscosity of Water Interfaces with Hydrophobic Nanopores: Application to Water Flow in Carbon Nanotubes

The nanoconfinement of water results in changes in water properties and nontraditional water flow behaviors. The determination of the interfacial interactions between water and hydrophobic surfaces helps in understanding many of the nontraditional behaviors of nanoconfined water. In this study, an approach for the identification of the viscosity of water interfaces with hydrophobic nanopores as a function of the nanopore diameter and water-solid (nanopore) interactions is proposed. In this approach, water in a hydrophobic nanopore is represented as a double-phase water with two distinct viscosities: water interface and water core. First, the slip velocity to pressure gradient ratio of water flow in hydrophobic nanopores is obtained via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Then the water interface viscosity is determined via a pressure gradient-based bilayer water flow model. Moreover, the core viscosity and the effective viscosity of water flow in hydrophobic nanopores are derived as functions of the nanopore diameter and water-solid interactions. This approach is utilized to report the interface viscosity, core viscosity, and effective viscosity of water flow in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as functions of the CNT diameter. Moreover, using the proposed approach, the transition from MD to continuum mechanics is revealed where the bulk water properties are recovered for large CNTs.