Nanofluidics

Nanofluidics studies and manipulates fluids confined in structures with nanometer-scale dimensions, where confinement changes transport, interfacial effects, and fluid behavior.

Electrical double layer: A charged interface and the surrounding distribution of counterions in an electrolyte. Its overlap across narrow channels can control ion concentrations and fluid transport.
Surface charge: Electric charge associated with the boundary of a material or interface. Charged channel walls attract ions and can make nanofluidic channels selective.
Nanopore sequencing: A method for reading nucleic-acid sequences by measuring molecules as they pass through a nanoscale pore. It uses confined ionic currents to detect individual DNA or RNA molecules.
Microfluidics: The manipulation of small fluid volumes in channels typically measured in micrometers. It shares device methods with nanofluidics but often has weaker molecular-scale confinement.
Non-equilibrium thermodynamics: The study of thermodynamic systems undergoing flows, gradients, or other departures from equilibrium. Nanoconfined transport couples forces and fluxes in regimes that challenge simple equilibrium descriptions.
Debye length: The characteristic distance over which an electrolyte screens an electric field. When channel dimensions approach this length, surface charge influences nearly the entire fluid.
Zeta potential: The electric potential at the slipping plane between a liquid and a solid surface. It helps characterize electrokinetic behavior at the channel walls.
Nanopore: A nanoscale opening through a membrane or material that permits molecular passage. Nanopores serve as core structures for sensing, sequencing, and molecular transport.
Knudsen diffusion: Gas transport in pores where molecule–wall collisions dominate molecule–molecule collisions. It describes a rarefied-gas regime, unlike many liquid nanofluidic systems.
Water at interfaces: The structure and dynamics of water molecules near solid, liquid, or biological boundaries. Interfacial water can behave differently from bulk water inside narrow channels.

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Nanofluidic devicesNarrower topic: Nanofluidic devices are the engineered platforms of this broader field.