Slippery and mobile hydrophobic electrokinetics: From single walls to nanochannels

We discuss how the wettability of solid walls impacts electrokinetic phenomena from large systems down to a nanoscale. We show in particular how could the hydrophobic slippage, coupled to confinement effects, be exploited to induce novel electrokinetic properties, such as a salt-dependent giant amplification of zeta potential and conductivity, and a much more efficient energy conversion. However, the impact of slippage is dramatically reduced if adsorbed surface charges would migrate along the hydrophobic wall under an applied field.