Spontaneous transport of nanodroplets in 2D nanochannels

Abstract

Directional transport of droplets is crucial for industrial applications and chemical engineering processes, which has demonstrated considerable promise in several fields, such as microelectromechanical systems and sensor devices. Nevertheless, controlled directional transport of nanodroplets in a 2D nanochannel has yet to be studied. In this work, we report an approach to achieving a self-driven behavior of a nanodroplet in a 2D nanochannel via a strain gradient. Meanwhile, the effect on the movement speed of the nanodroplet of different channel parameters is studied, including the magnitude of the strain gradient, interlayer distance, and interlayer angle of the nanochannel. Furthermore, how the nanochannel materials affect spontaneous movement is also explored. These simulation results are highly expected to shed new light on the study of the directional transport of a nanodroplet and open a new avenue for research on heat dissipation in microelectromechanical systems.