Nanofluidics articles from across Nature Portfolio

This study shows how a simple voltage can repeatedly open and close nanoscale pores in a solid membrane, revealing new ways to control ion flow at the atomic scale for advanced nanofluidic technologies.

Salinity gradients can be converted into electrical energy via charge-selective membranes. Here the authors report a nanofluidic system based on stalactite nanopore membranes functionalized with charged lipid bilayers for osmotic energy harvesting with enhanced ion transport and charge separation efficiency.

A framework for evaporation-driven hydrovoltaic devices decouples interfacial processes, revealing capacitive, thermal, and surface-charge mechanisms that boost energy generation, enabling 1 V output and improved performance via material engineering.

Theoretical studies discover quantum momentum tunnelling between liquid flows separated by nanometre-thick graphene layers via the interaction between molecular dipole excitations and plasmons.

Nanoscale liquid–electron couplings affect water permeability through carbon nanotube porins.

The upstream self-diffusion of dissociated protons induces long-lasting electricity generation in 2D nanochannels of MXene/PVA film with low water permeability.

Nanofluidic memristors that rely on mechanical deformations to modulate ionic conductance can be coupled to form logic circuits, opening a route to ionic machinery that could implement neural networks.

DNA chirality allows it to act as an electrohydrodynamical turbine under the action of an electroosmotic flow when confined in nanopores.

Selective growth of nanoporous metal–organic framework nanocrystals in the stacking defects of graphene oxide layers improves the mechanical integrity and water–solute selectivity of graphene oxide membranes.