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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Torres-Arenas, Jose, Fernández-Fernández, Ángel M., Pérez-Rodríguez, Martín, Piñeiro, Manuel M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.14533
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Table of Contents:
  • Methane hydrate nucleation under nanoconfinement remains poorly understood due to the complex interplay between geometric restriction and molecular ordering. Here, we investigate the structural organization of water-methane systems confined between silica planar slit pores with widths ranging from 1 to 5 nm and temperatures between 250 and 295 K. Three-dimensional radial distribution functions reveal a clear suppression of hydrate-like ordering at strong confinement (below 2 nm), indicating frustrated nucleation. In contrast, projected two-dimensional correlations exhibit pronounced in-plane structural organization, evidencing a confinement-induced reduction in the dimensionality of molecular order.