Interactions of Wall Roughness and Electroosmotic Flows Inside Nanochannels

We are reporting electroosmotic flows in nanochannels having different surface roughness. Molecular dynamics simulation technique has been applied to understand microscopic or molecular aspects of solid-liquid interactions. The surface roughness in this study was modeled as a succession of expanding and contracting steps along the flow direction, determined by the electric field direction. Water and sodium ion density profiles for the smooth wall show strong layering of water molecules near the solid wall. For rough walls, the density profiles are very similar for all cases except where the steps are located. We observed that this disturbance grows with the amplitude of the roughness and decreases with the period of the roughness. To further investigate strong layering of the water molecules, the net electric dipole moment was computed for the smooth and rough walls. It shows ordering of water molecules near the wall. The rough wall result show water molecules are ordered more in the expanded region. The velocity profiles and the flow rate were calculated for all cases. From these, electric double layers are found to overlap. The maximum velocities and the flow rate decreased for the lower period and the higher amplitude of surface roughness.