Anomalous liquid imbibition at the nanoscale: the critical role of interfacial deformations

The effects of surface hydration on capillary adhesion under nanoscale confinement

Nanoscale phenomena such as surface hydration and the molecular layering of liquids under strong nanoscale confinement play a critical role in liquid-mediated surface adhesion that is not accounted for by available models, which assume a uniform liquid density with or without considering surface forces and associated disjoining pressure effects. This work introduces an alternative theoretical description that via the potential of mean force (PMF) considers the strong spatial variation of the liquid number density under nanoscale confinement. This alternative description based on the PMF predicts a dual effect of surface hydration by producing: (i) strong spatial oscillations of the local liquid density and pressure and, more importantly, (ii) a configuration-dependent liquid-solid surface energy under nanoscale confinement. Theoretical analysis and molecular dynamics simulations for the case of an axisymmetric water bridge with nanoscale heights show that the latter hydration effect is critical for the accurate prediction of the surface energy and adhesion forces when a small volume of liquid is nanoscopically confined by two surfaces approaching contact.

Transport Phenomena in Nano/Molecular Confinements

The transport of fluid and ions in nano/molecular confinements is the governing physics of a myriad of embodiments in nature and technology including human physiology, plants, energy modules, water collection and treatment systems, chemical processes, materials synthesis, and medicine. At nano/molecular scales, the confinement dimension approaches the molecular size and the transport characteristics deviates significantly from that at macro/micro scales. A thorough understanding of physics of transport at these scales and associated fluid properties is undoubtedly critical for future technologies. This compressive review provides an elaborate picture on the promising future applications of nano/molecular transport, highlights experimental and simulation metrologies to probe and comprehend this transport phenomenon, discusses the physics of fluid transport, tunable flow by orders of magnitude, and gating mechanisms at these scales, and lists the advancement in the fabrication methodologies to turn these transport concepts into reality. Properties such as chain-like liquid transport, confined gas transport, surface charge-driven ion transport, physical/chemical ion gates, and ion diodes will provide avenues to devise technologies with enhanced performance inaccessible through macro/micro systems. This review aims to provide a consolidated body of knowledge to accelerate innovation and breakthrough in the above fields.

Anomalous Capillary Rise under Nanoconfinement: A View of Molecular Kinetic Theory

Understanding the capillary filling behaviors in nanopores is crucial for many science and engineering problems. Compared with the classical Bell-Cameron-Lucas-Washburn (BCLW) theory, anomalous coefficient is always observed because of the increasing role of surfaces. Here, a molecular kinetics approach is adopted to explain the mechanism of anomalous behaviors at the molecular level; a unified model taking account of the confined liquid properties (viscosity and density) and slip boundary condition is proposed to demonstrate the macroscopic consequences, and the model results are successfully validated against the published literature. The results show that (1) the effective viscosity induced by the interaction from the pore wall, as a function of wettability and the pore dimension (nanoslit height or nanotube diameter), may remarkably slow down the capillary filling process more than theoretically predicted. (2) The true slip, where water molecules directly slide on the walls, strongly depends on the wettability and will increase as the contact angle increases. In the hydrophilic nanopores, though, the magnitude may be comparable with the pore dimensions and promote the capillary filling compared with the classical BCLW model. (3) Compared with the other model, the proposed model can successfully predict the capillary filling for both faster or slower capillary filling process; meanwhile, it can capture the underlying physics behind these behaviors at the molecular level based on the effective viscosity and slippage. (4) The surface effects have different influence on the capillary filling in nanoslits and nanotubes, and the relative magnitude will change with the variation of wettability as well as the pore dimension.

Influences of polarity and hydration cycles on imbibition hysteresis in silica nanochannels

Liquid imbibition experiments in 2D silica nanochannels reveal insights into the impact of hydrophilicity and liquid polarity on the hydrodynamic “no slip” boundary condition and nanoscale imbibition behavior.

Subsurface to substrate: dual-scale micro/nanofluidic networks for investigating transport anomalies in tight porous media

Micro/nanofluidic experiments in synthetic representations of tight porous media, often referred to as "reservoir-on-a-chip" devices, are an emerging approach to researching anomalous fluid transport trends in energy-bearing and fluid-sequestering geologic porous media. We detail, for the first time, the construction of dual-scale micro/nanofluidic devices that are relatively large-scale, two-dimensional network representations of granular and fractured nanoporous media. The fabrication scheme used in the development of the networks on quartz substrates (master patterns) is facile and replicable: transmission electron microscopy (TEM) grids with lacey carbon support film were used as shadow masks in thermal evaporation/deposition and reactive ion etch (RIE) was used for hardmask pattern transfer. The reported nanoscale network geometries are heterogeneous and composed of hydraulically resistive paths (throats) meeting at junctures (pores) to mimic the low topological connectivity of nanoporous sedimentary rocks such as shale. The geometry also includes homogenous microscale grid patterns that border the nanoscale networks and represent microfracture pathways. Master patterns were successfully replicated with a sequence of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and Norland Optical Adhesive (NOA) 63 polymers. The functionality of the fabricated quartz and polymer nanofluidic devices was validated with aqueous imbibition experiments and differential interference contrast microscopy. These dual-scale fluidic devices are promising predictive tools for hypothesis testing and calibration against bulk fluid measurements in tight geologic, biologic, and synthetic porous material of similar dual-scale pore structure. Applications to shale/mudrock transport studies in particular are focused on herein.