Behavior of water and aqueous LiCl solutions confined in cylindrical silica pores: A wide temperature range molecular dynamics simulation study

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Main Authors: Gautam, Siddharth, Vlcek, Lukas, Mamontov, Eugene, Cole, David
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Gautam, Siddharth
Vlcek, Lukas
Mamontov, Eugene
Cole, David
author_facet Gautam, Siddharth
Vlcek, Lukas
Mamontov, Eugene
Cole, David
contents We report here a molecular dynamics simulation study on water and aqueous LiCl solutions confined in 1.6 nm cylindrical pores of silica to investigate a dynamical cross-over, observed earlier experimentally, wherein LiCl slows down confined water at high temperatures but makes it faster at lower temperatures. The cross-over observed in the experiments is reproduced in the simulations, albeit at lower temperature. Moreover, the cross-over encompasses all aspects of dynamics including translation as well as rotation. Both addition of LiCl and confinement result in a breaking of hydrogen bond network in confined water, eliminating the need for long jumps via exchange of hydrogen bonded partner molecules. This lowers the activation energy for diffusion in the electrolyte solution compared to pure confined water and leads to the dynamical cross-over seen at lower temperatures. Our results thus provide an explanation to the experimentally observed phenomena and provide important insights on the interplay of confinement, temperature and presence of electrolytes on the dynamical behavior of nano-confined water.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_20576
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Behavior of water and aqueous LiCl solutions confined in cylindrical silica pores: A wide temperature range molecular dynamics simulation study
Gautam, Siddharth
Vlcek, Lukas
Mamontov, Eugene
Cole, David
Soft Condensed Matter
Chemical Physics
We report here a molecular dynamics simulation study on water and aqueous LiCl solutions confined in 1.6 nm cylindrical pores of silica to investigate a dynamical cross-over, observed earlier experimentally, wherein LiCl slows down confined water at high temperatures but makes it faster at lower temperatures. The cross-over observed in the experiments is reproduced in the simulations, albeit at lower temperature. Moreover, the cross-over encompasses all aspects of dynamics including translation as well as rotation. Both addition of LiCl and confinement result in a breaking of hydrogen bond network in confined water, eliminating the need for long jumps via exchange of hydrogen bonded partner molecules. This lowers the activation energy for diffusion in the electrolyte solution compared to pure confined water and leads to the dynamical cross-over seen at lower temperatures. Our results thus provide an explanation to the experimentally observed phenomena and provide important insights on the interplay of confinement, temperature and presence of electrolytes on the dynamical behavior of nano-confined water.
title Behavior of water and aqueous LiCl solutions confined in cylindrical silica pores: A wide temperature range molecular dynamics simulation study
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Chemical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.20576