The electrokinetic behaviors, including ionic current rectification (ICR), selectivity, and electroosmotic flow (EOF) of a nanopore play important role in applications such as nano sensing, salinity gradient power, and desalination of sea water. Since those behaviors can be influenced significantly by the shape and charged conditions of a nanopore, the influence of these factors on its performance is studied in detail by comparing the behavior of six types of nanopore (conical, cylindrical, cigar, funnel, hourglass, and dumbbell-shaped pores), each of them can be unipolarly or bipolarly charged. In addition to examining their performance under various conditions, the associated mechanisms are also discussed. We show that the internal volume of a nanopore is the most important factor influencing its ICR behavior. However, the selectivity of a nanopore depends both on its internal volume and the fraction of its narrow region. The bipolar and unipolar nature of a nanopore can yield interesting velocity profile, which is also influenced by the salt concentration and nanopore geometry.

Hydrogen energy is promising renewable energy and specifically, hydrogen storage is a bottleneck to commercializing hydrogen energy. Researchers have relied on the synthesis of porous materials in physisorption and lowering the H₂ binding energy of hydride materials in chemisorption, all of which have been conducted in a similar manner respectively. However, the development of hydrogen storage materials applicable to onboard system isn't found yet. Hence, we examined the phenomenon of eccentric H₂ storage in carbon nanopores with sub^-1 nm diameters reported earlier, finding a lack of deep research on the fundamentals of this phenomenon. We formulate a hypothesis of H₂ storage by intrinsic EMF (IEMF) interaction and firstly discover that in contrast to general intuition, the neutral carbon nanopore forms a significant IEMF even without an external EMF. Moreover, we confirm the difference of IEMF inside the nanopore from that outside the nanopore due to the overlap between the graphene layers and demonstrate that the resultant IEMF inside the nanopore governs the H₂ storage in the carbon nanopore. This result will shed light on all the other areas related to abnormal phenomena in nanopores with sub^-1 nm diameters.

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Jenny
Journal Co-ordinator
Journal of Nano Research & Applications