Experimental Study of Water Flows in Nanochannels

Flow in nanoscale confinements plays very fundamental role on the nanoscale transport phenomena. Recent progresses in the design and manufacturing of nano structures and devices have raised considerable demand for deep understanding on this topic, particularly experimental investigations. Flow in nanoconfinements is believed to be different from classic fluid mechanics frame. Previous work in this area has reported controversial results about nanoscale flows in the past few years. In the present work, Poiseuille flow of water in nanoslits is studied. Through the experimental data, a clear deviation from theoretical prediction is observed in a large pressure drop region. Slippage of water at higher pressure region is thought to be the major reason to cause this result. In addition, effects of temperature gradient on the flows are also investigated.