Surface Effect on Oil Transportation in Nanochannel: a Molecular Dynamics Study

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the dynamics mechanism of oil transportation in nanochannel using molecular dynamics simulations. It is demonstrated that the interaction between oil molecules and nanochannel has a great effect on the transportation properties of oil in nanochannel. Because of different interactions between oil molecules and channel, the center of mass (COM) displacement of oil in a 6-nm channel is over 30 times larger than that in a 2-nm channel, and the diffusion coefficient of oil molecules at the center of a 6-nm channel is almost two times more than that near the channel surface. Besides, it is found that polarity of oil molecules has the effect on impeding oil transportation, because the electrostatic interaction between polar oil molecules and channel is far larger than that between nonpolar oil molecules and channel. In addition, channel component is found to play an important role in oil transportation in nanochannel, for example, the COM displacement of oil in gold channel is very few due to great interaction between oil and gold substrate. It is also found that nano-sized roughness of channel surface greatly influences the speed and flow pattern of oil. Our findings would contribute to revealing the mechanism of oil transportation in nanochannels and therefore are very important for design of oil extraction in nanochannels.