This article discusses the way the standard description of capillary filling dynamics has to be modified to account for liquid/solid slip in nanometric pores. It focuses, in particular, on the case of a large slip length compared to the pore size. It is shown that the liquid viscosity does not play a role, and that the flow is only controlled by the friction coefficient of the liquid at the wall. Moreover, in the Washburn regime, the filling velocity does not depend on the tube radius. Finally, molecular dynamics simulations suggest that this standard description fails to describe the early stage of capillary filling of carbon nanotubes by water, since viscous dissipation at the tube entrance must be taken into account.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics