Water transport through a two-dimensional nanoporous material: is there a relationship between water flux and surface tension?

Abstract

In this work, the relationship between the water flux through nanoporous two-dimensional hexagonal Boron Nitride (h-BN) and surface tension was investigated from equilibrium and pressure-driven molecular dynamics simulations by considering the most popular rigid water models. From the surface tension calculation, the contact angle was evaluated and compared with the experiment. We exhibit a correlation between the water flux through nanoporous h-BN predicted by the various water models and the surface tension as a result of the difference in the interfacial energy.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Interfacial tension
• water permeability
• nanoporous membrane
• h-BN-water interface

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statements

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful to the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) for its financial support through the program PICS ‘Waterloo’.