Pore-Size Dependent Slippage in Capillary Filling of Compressed Carbon Nanotube Sponges
X. Li, Y. Xue, M. Zou, A. Cao and H. Duan
Liquid slippage in nanofluidic systems such as carbon nanotubes has attracted great research interest in the past decade. However, it remains unclear whether liquid slippage can happen in a capillary filling system with wetting surface. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate a capillary slipping flow in compressed carbon nanotube sponges for both oil and water, which shows clear dependence on the effective pore size of the sponge. The slip length reaches around 20 nanometers for our most compressed sponges. The present work may inspire the research on designing nanofluidic devices with wetting surfaces and meanwhile high fluid transport rate.
Keywords: Capillary filling, CNT sponges, liquid slippage, pore-size dependence