View article

The transport of water through nanoscale capillaries/pores plays a prominent role in biology, ionic/molecular separations, water treatment and protective applications. However, the mechanisms of water and vapor transport through nanoscale confinements remain to be fully understood. Angstrom-scale pores (~2.8–6.6 Å) introduced into the atomically thin graphene lattice represent ideal model systems to probe water transport at the molecular-length scale with short pores (aspect ratio ~1–1.9) i.e., pore diameters approach the pore length (~3.4 Å) at the theoretical limit of material thickness. Here, we report on orders of magnitude differences (~80×) between transport of water vapor (~44.2–52.4 g m⁻² day⁻¹ Pa⁻¹) and liquid water (0.6–2 g m⁻² day⁻¹ Pa⁻¹) through nanopores (~2.8–6.6 Å in diameter) in monolayer graphene and rationalize this difference via a flow resistance model in which liquid water …