Hydrogen transport within graphene multilayers by means of flexural phonons

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to demonstrate that flexural phonons in multilayer graphene can actively transport hydrogen over hundreds of nanometers, suggesting a potential method for gas pumping in graphene frameworks.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism for hydrogen transport via flexural phonons in multilayer graphene, combining mechanical vibrations with gas movement.

Findings

Hydrogen can be transported efficiently over hundreds of nanometers.

Flexural phonons can create moving nano-cavities for gas transport.

The effect persists until phonons damp down.

Abstract

Graphene sustains transverse out-of-plane mechanical vibrations (flexural phonons). At the nanometer scale, these appear as travelling ripples, or cavities, if excited in counter-phase in alternate multilayers. In this work we explore by means of classical molecular dynamics simulations the possibility of using these moving nano-cavities to actively transport hydrogen. We find that the gas can be efficiently transported for hundreds of nanometers in the wave propagation direction, before the phonons damp down. Therefore, this effect could be used to move and pump gases through multilayers graphene based frameworks.