A Step-by-Step Process-Induced Unidirectional Oriented Water Wire in the Nanotube

The orientation of water molecules is a key requirement for the fast transport of water in nanotubes. It has been accepted that the flip of the water chain follows a concerted mechanism, which has led to the view that bidirectional water flux in nanotubes can be transformed into unidirectional transport when the orientation of water molecules is maintained in long nanotubes under the external field. In this Letter, on the basis of molecular dynamics simulations and first-principles calculations, we confirmed that the flip of the water chain is a step-by-step process, which is different from the perceived concerted mechanism. Further analysis indicated that without an external field, it needed more than 20 water molecules to maintain the unidirectional single-file water flow in a carbon nanotube at a duration time of seconds. Considering that the thickness of the cell membrane (normally 5-10 nm) is larger than the length threshold of the unidirectional water wire, this study suggested that it may not require the external field to maintain the unidirectional flow in the water channel at the macroscopic time scale.