title: Transport-Induced Inversion of Screening Ionic Charges in Nanochannels.
abstract: This work reveals a counterintuitive but basic process of ionic screening in nanofluidic channels. Steady-state numerical simulations and mathematical analysis show that, under significant longitudinal ionic transport, the screening ionic charges can be locally inverted in the channels: their charge sign becomes the same as that of the channel surface charges. The process is identified to originate from the coupling of ionic electro-diffusion transport and junction two-dimensional electrostatics. This finding may expand our understanding of ionic screening and electrical double layers in nanochannels. Furthermore, the charge inversion process results in a body-force torque on channel fluids, which is a possible mechanism for vortex generation in the channels and their nonlinear current-voltage characteristics.
authors.affiliation: College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University , Hangzhou, China 310027.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University , Hangzhou, China 310027.
authors.forename: Lingzi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University , Hangzhou, China 310027.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.affiliation: College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University , Hangzhou, China 310027.
authors.forename: Xingye
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University , Hangzhou, China 310027.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7411-8779
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu