2004/06/25 by B. N. J. Persson, U. Tartaglino, Erio Tosatti +2
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Carbon Nanotubes in Composites #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.69.235410
published as Phys. Rev. B 69, 235410 (2004) · 8 pages, 3 figures; published on PRB (http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v69/e235410) and on the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology (http://www.vjnano.org, July 14, 2002, Vol. 10, Iss. 2)
openalex publication_date 2004/06/25 · arxiv created 2004/07/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
A recent exciting experiment by Ghosh et al. [Science 299, 1042 (2003)] reported that the flow of an ion-containing liquid such as water through bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes induces a voltage in the nanotubes that grows logarithmically with the flow velocity v0. We propose an explanation for this observation. Assuming that the liquid molecules nearest the nanotube form a two-dimensional solidlike monolayer pinned through the adsorbed ions to the nanotubes, the monolayer sliding will occur by elastic loading followed by the local yield (stick-slip motion). The drifting adsorbed ions produce a voltage in the nanotube through electronic friction against free electrons inside the nanotube. Thermally excited jumps over force-biased barriers, well known in the stick-slip model, can explain the logarithmic voltage growth with flow velocity. We estimate the short-circuit current and the internal resistance of the nanotube voltage generator.