Enhanced flow of core-softened fluids through narrow nanotubes

Abstract

We investigate through non-equilibrium molecular dynamic simulations the flow of anomalous fluids inside rigid nanotubes. Our results reveal an anomalous increase of the overall mass flux for nanotubes with sufficiently smaller radii. This is explained in terms of a transition from a single-file type of flow to the movement of an ordered-like fluid as the nanotube radius increases. The occurrence of a global minimum in the mass flux at this transition reflects the competition between the two characteristic length scales of the core-softened potential. Moreover, by increasing further the radius, another substantial change in the flow behavior, which becomes more evident at low temperatures, leads to a local minimum in the overall mass flux. Microscopically, this second transition is originated by the formation of a double-layer of flowing particles in the confined nanotube space. These nano-fluidic features give insights about the behavior of confined isotropic anomalous fluids.