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Angstrom-scale ionic streaming when the electrical double-layer concept fails

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2025

Jiajia Lu ,
Shuyong Luan Open the ORCID record for Shuyong Luan [Opens in a new window] ,
Shenghui Guo ,
Libing Duan Open the ORCID record for Libing Duan [Opens in a new window] ,
Guanghua Du Open the ORCID record for Guanghua Du [Opens in a new window]  and
Yanbo Xie Open the ORCID record for Yanbo Xie [Opens in a new window]
Jiajia Lu
Affiliation:
School of Physical Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, PR China
Shuyong Luan
Affiliation:
National Key Laboratory of Aircraft Configuration Design, School of Aeronautics and Institute of Extreme Mechanics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, PR China
Shenghui Guo
Affiliation:
School of Physical Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, PR China
Libing Duan
Affiliation:
School of Physical Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, PR China
Guanghua Du
Affiliation:
Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, PR China
Yanbo Xie*
Affiliation:
National Key Laboratory of Aircraft Configuration Design, School of Aeronautics and Institute of Extreme Mechanics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, PR China
*
Corresponding author: Yanbo Xie, ybxie@nwpu.edu.cn
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Abstract

A knowledge gap exists for flows and transport phenomena at the angstrom scale when the Poisson–Nernst–Planck equation based on the concept of the electrical double layer fails. We discovered that streaming conductance becomes pressure-dependent in angstrom channels using latent-track membranes. The streaming current emerges only when the applied pressure exceeds a threshold value, which is inconsistent with the existing knowledge as a constant. With increasing channel size, we found that the pressure-dependent streaming conductance phenomenon weakens and vanishes into a constant streaming conductance regime when the mean channel radius exceeds $\sim$2 nm. The effective surface potential derived from the streaming conductance that divides conduction anomalously increases as the channel narrows. We suspect that the pressure-dependent streaming current is due to the reinforced Coulomb interaction between counterions and deprotonated carboxyl groups at the surface, which is close to the ion channel but different from that of electrified two-dimensional materials. The streaming current emerged due to hydrodynamic friction when the counterions were released from the surface. We approximated the stochastic process of counterion dissociation by a one-dimensional Kramer escape theory framework and defined the Damk$\ddot {\mathrm{o}}$hler number to describe the transition from the nonlinear streaming conductance regime to the linear regime as functions of applied pressure and channel radius and well explained the enhanced effective surface potential in confinement.

JFM classification

MHD and Electrohydrodynamics: Electrokinetic flows Micro-/Nano-fluid dynamics: Non-continuum effects Waves/Free-surface Flows: Channel flow

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JFM Papers
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Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 1015 , 25 July 2025 , A13
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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