SearcharxivSearch

arXiv subjects

Jianjun Jiang

Publications and source records attributed to Jianjun Jiang.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Ultrafast ion sieving in two dimensional graphene oxide membranes

Ultrahigh water permeance, together with a high rejection rate through nanofiltration and separation membranes1,2, is crucial but still challenging for multivalent ion sieving in water treatment processes of desalination, separation, and purification3,4. To date, no theory or equation has ever been quantitatively clarified the mechanism of water permeance in two-dimensional (2D) membranes, despite intensive and prolonged searches. Here, we established a new general equation of permeation through 2D membranes, and experimentally achieved unprecedented advances in water permeance one to two orders of magnitude higher than state-of-the-art membranes while simultaneously maintaining high ion rejection rates for multivalent metal ions, by staking nano-sized reduced graphene oxide (nano-rGO) flakes into nanofiltration membranes. The equation is simply based on a fundamental steady-state flow assumption and provides an essential description of water permeance through 2D membranes, demonstrating that the ultrahigh water permeance is attributed to the high effective channel area and shortened channel length elicited from the nano-sized-flake stacking effects in nano-rGO membranes, consistent with our theoretical simulations and previous experiments. These results pave the way for fabrication of advanced 2D nanofiltration membranes to realize a breakthrough in water permeance with exceptional ion sieving performance.

physics.flu-dyn

Water-phospholipid interactions at the interface of lipid membranes: comparison of different force fields

Water-phospholipid interactions at the lipid bilayer/water interfaces are of essential importance for the dynamics, stability and function of biological membrane, and are also strongly associated with numerous biological processes at the interfaces of lipid bilayers. Various force fields, such as the united-atom Berger force field, its two improved versions by Kukol and by Poger, and the all-atom Slipid force field developed recently, can be applied to simulating the structures of lipid bilayer, with their structural predictions in good agreement with experimental data. In this work, we show that despite the similarity in structural predictions of lipid bilayers, there are observable differences in formation of hydrogen bonds and the interaction energy profiles between water and phospholipid groups at the lipid bilayer/water interfaces, when four force fields for dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) phospholipids are employed in molecular dynamics simulations. In particular, the Slipid force field yields more hydrogen bonds between water and phospholipids and more symmetrical interaction energy distributions for the two carboxylic groups on their respective acyl tails, compared to the Berger and its two improved force fields. These differences are mainly attributed to the different interfacial water distributions and ability to form hydrogen bonds between interfacial water and oxygen atoms of the DPPC lipids using different force fields. These results would be helpful in understanding the behaviors of water as well as its interaction with phospholipids at the lipid bilayer/water interfaces, and provide a guide for making the appropriate choice on the force field in simulations of lipid bilayers.

cond-mat.soft

Modulating heat conduction by stretching or compressing

Recent studies have revealed that the symmetry of interparticle potential plays an important role in one-dimensional heat conduction problem. Here we demonstrate that by stretching or compressing the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-\b{eta} lattice, one can control the symmetry of the potential, and thus manipulate the decaying behavior of the heat current autocorrelation function (HCAF). In fact, stretching or compressing induces a fast decaying stage (FDS) during which the HCAF decays faster than power-law manners or in a power law manner but faster than ~t -1. The time range as well as the decay amplitude of the HCAF over the FDS increase as the stretching or compressing ratio increase, or as the temperature decreases. As a consequence, the thermal conductivity calculated following the Green-Kubo formula shows a truncation-time independent window, implying a system-size independent conductivity. Stretching or compressing also changes the exponent of the power-law tail of the HCAF. The complicated heat conduction behavior induced by stretching or compressing can be connected to the change of the symmetry of the interparticle potential.

cond-mat.stat-mech