Light slows down carbon nanotubes in water

Nikita Kavokine is in the Quantum Plumbing Lab, EPFL, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland.

“God made the bulk; the surface was invented by the devil.” This statement, attributed to the Nobel prizewinning physicist Wolfgang Pauli, who died in 1958, is perhaps even more on point today than it was during his lifetime. Condensed-matter theory can predict material properties in the interior, or bulk, of most conventional solids and liquids. But when it comes to their interfaces, surprisingly little is known: in particular, the nature of liquid–solid friction — in which energy is dissipated by liquid flowing over a solid — still puzzles researchers. Writing in Nature, Kistwal et al.1 report that when the liquid is water, the solid is a carbon nanotube and light shines on the system, the frictional-energy dissipation seems to involve subtle quantum effects.

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Kistwal, T. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10632-2 (2026).

Ackermann, J., Metternich, J. T., Herbertz, S. & Kruss, S. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 61, e202112372 (2022).

Kavokine, N., Bocquet, M.-L. & Bocquet, L. Nature 602, 84–90 (2022).

Coquinot, B., Bocquet, L. & Kavokine, N. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 121, e2411613121 (2024).

Read the paper: Light-induced quantum friction of carbon nanotubes in water

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