MD Simulation for A Double Nanopore Desalination System

Abstract

The shortage of fresh water resources is a major challenge that should be resolved by the society, and sea water desalination is a potential way to solve this problem at present. With the development of nanopore technology, various kinds of nanopore sea water desalination methods have been reported, by controlling the pore size and functionalizing the nanopore, the nanopore can effectively reject salt ions. Here we show, by performing molecular dynamics simulations, that a double graphene nanopore system with charged nanopores can successfully remove K+ and Cl− ions from the water in the area separated by the two membranes under the electric field and people can obtain fresh water without salt. However, if the atoms around the nanopore were not charged, the double pore system would not be able to act as a water purifier, where ions can not be separated from water by electric field forces alone. Based on the result of our work, the charged double pore system has the potential to be used in seawater desalination in the future.