Thursday, January 26, 2012
The Shea and Siwy groups report electric-field-induced wetting and dewetting in single hydrophobic nanopores.
In the recent Letter in Nature Nanotechnology, graduate students Matt Powell and Leah Cleary from the groups of Prof. Siwy and Prof. Shea reported single hydrophobic nanopores can undergo voltage-induced reversible wetting and dewetting due to condensation and evaporation of water in the pore. The hydrophobic pores could have applications in on-demand drug delivery systems in which diffusion leakage in the absence of an external stimulus is totally suppressed. This work has now made the cover of the December issue.