Orientations of special water dipoles that accelerate water molecules exiting from carbon nanotube

One-dimensional ordered water molecules entering and exiting from a carbon nanotube with an appropriate radius are studied with molecular dynamics simulations. It can be found that a water molecule near the nanotube end is more likely to be expelled from the nanotube if its dipole is almost perpendicular to the nanotube axis. The key to this observation is that those water molecules are closer to the wall of the nanotube away from the equilibrium position of the Lennar-Jones (LJ) potential. Thus, the interaction energy for those water molecules is relatively high. There are two particular structures of the perpendicular water molecule depending on the dipole direction of the adjacent water molecule in the nanotube. Although the probabilities of these structures are quite small, their contributions to the net flux across the nanotube end are approximately equal to the predominant structures. The present findings further show the possibility of controlling the water flow by regulating the dipole directions of the water molecules inside the nanochannels.