Complete steric exclusion of ions and proton transport through confined monolayer water

We report capillaries made by effectively extracting one atomic plane from bulk crystals, which leaves a two-dimensional slit of a few angstroms in height. Water moves through these capillaries with little resistance, whereas no permeation could be detected even for such small ions as Na+ and Cl–. Only protons (H+) can diffuse through monolayer water inside the capillaries. These observations improve our understanding of molecular transport at the atomic scale.
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Materials Science, Physics reports Source Type: news