Abstract

Water transport through nanoscale confinements is of great interest in various research areas (fluid and thermal transport, manufacturing, biology, materials science, etc.), as it can be applied to innovative, practical applications. Through a large surface area–volume ratio, nanosized (<100 nm) channels can enhance heat dissipation for thermal management (Hanks et al., 2018), energy conversion/storage (Park et al., 2014; Ghasemi et al., 2014), water filtration and desalination (Lee et al., 2011; Yang et al., 2013; Lee et al., 2015), and biological and chemical separations (Han et al., 2000). In addition, the small scale of flow rate and its delicate control enable realization of novel drug delivery and lab-on-a-chip devices (Kovarik et al., 2009; Naguib et al., 2004; Yang et al., 2017).