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Li X, Fang YG, Bai Q, Jiang J, Zeng XC, Francisco JS, Zhu C, Fang W. Two-dimensional ice-like water adlayers on a mica surface with and without a graphene coating under ambient conditions. NANOSCALE 2024; 16:11542-11549. [PMID: 38787689 DOI: 10.1039/d4nr00748d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2024]
Abstract
Water tends to wet all hydrophilic surfaces under ambient conditions, and the first water adlayers on solids are important for a broad range of physicochemical phenomena and technological processes, including corrosion, wetting, lubrication, anti-icing, catalysis, and electrochemistry. Unfortunately, challenges in characterizing the first water adlayer in the laboratory have hampered molecular-level understanding of the contact water structure. Herein, we present the first ab initio molecular dynamics simulation evidence of a previously unreported ice-like adlayer structure (named as Ice-AL-II) on a prototype mica surface under ambient conditions. Calculation showed that the newly identified Ice-AL-II structure is more stable than the widely recognized ice-adlayer structure on mica surfaces (named as Ice-AL-I). Ice-AL-II exhibited a face-centered corner-cut tetragon (or a face-centered irregular pentagon) pattern of a hydrogen-bonded network. The center of the corner-cut tetragon was occupied by either a K+ cation or a water molecule with two H atoms pinned by the mica (100) via double hydrogen bonds. Our simulation also suggested that bilayer Ice-AL-II favors AA stacking rather than AB stacking. Interestingly, when a graphene sheet was coated on top of the ice-like adlayer, the stability of Ice-AL-II was further enhanced. In contrast, due to its strongly puckered structure, the Ice-AL-I structure could be crushed into a near-Ice-AL-II structure by the graphene coating. Ice-AL-II is thus proposed as a promising candidate for the ice-like structure on a mica surface detected by scanning polarization force microscopy and by atomic force microscopy between a graphene coating and a mica surface.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaojiao Li
- Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Photochemistry, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
| | - Ye-Guang Fang
- Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience, CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China
| | - Qi Bai
- Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Photochemistry, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
| | - Jian Jiang
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon 999077, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
| | - Xiao Cheng Zeng
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon 999077, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA
| | - Joseph S Francisco
- Department of Earth and Environmental Science and Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
| | - Chongqin Zhu
- Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Photochemistry, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
| | - Weihai Fang
- Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Photochemistry, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
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Zhu Z, Zhu J, Chang C, Qi C, Zhu Z, Zhao H, Zhang D, Zeng XC, Wang C. Tunable Surface Wettability via Terahertz Electrowave Controlled Vicinal Subnanoscale Water Layer. NANO LETTERS 2024; 24:3243-3248. [PMID: 38427592 DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c00248] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/03/2024]
Abstract
Achieving timely, reversible, and long-range remote tunability over surface wettability is highly demanded across diverse fields, including nanofluidic systems, drug delivery, and heterogeneous catalysis. Herein, using molecular dynamic simulations, we show, for the first time, a theoretical design of electrowetting to achieve remotely controllable surface wettability via using a terahertz wave. The key idea driving the design is the unique terahertz collective vibration identified in the vicinal subnanoscale water layer, which is absent in bulk water, enabling efficient energy transfer from the terahertz wave to the rotational motion of the vicinal subnanoscale water layer. Consequently, a frequency-specific alternating terahertz electric field near the critical strength can significantly affect the local hydrogen-bonding network of the contact water layer on the solid surface, thereby achieving tunable surface wettability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhi Zhu
- College of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
| | - Junquan Zhu
- College of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
| | - Chao Chang
- Innovation Laboratory of Terahertz Biophysics, National Innovation Institute of Defense Technology, Beijing 100071, China
- School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Chonghai Qi
- School of Physical and Intelligent Engineering, Jining University, Qufu 273155, China
| | - Zhongjie Zhu
- Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201210, China
| | - Hongwei Zhao
- Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201210, China
| | - Dengsong Zhang
- International Joint Laboratory of Catalytic Chemistry, College of Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
| | - Xiao Cheng Zeng
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, 999077, Hong Kong
| | - Chunlei Wang
- International Joint Laboratory of Catalytic Chemistry, College of Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
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Liu Y, Pu Y, Zeng XC. Nanoporous ices: an emerging class in the water/ice family. NANOSCALE 2022; 15:92-100. [PMID: 36484320 DOI: 10.1039/d2nr05759j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
The history of scientific research on diverse ice structures dates back to more than a century. To date, 20 three-dimensional crystalline ice phases (ice I-ice XX) have been identified in the laboratory, among which ice XVI and ice XVII belong to a class of low-density nanoporous ices. Nanoporous ices can also be viewed as a special class of porous materials or water ice, as they possess a relatively high fraction of nano-cavities and/or nano-channels built into the hydrogen-bonded water framework. As such, like the prototypical class of porous materials (e.g., MOFs and COFs), nanoporous ices can be named as water oxygen-vertex frameworks (WOFs). Because of their large surface-to-volume ratio, WOFs may be potential media for gas storage, gas purification and separation. They may be applied to the biomedical field owing to their excellent biocompatibility. The field of porous ices is still emerging, as many porous ice structures that are predicted to be stable by computer simulations require future experimental confirmation. For future theoretical/computational studies, as the machine-learning method becomes an increasingly popular research tool in the material science and chemical science fields, more reliable porous ice structures and phase diagrams will be predicted with the development of more accurate machine-learning force fields.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuan Liu
- School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China.
| | - Yangyang Pu
- School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China.
| | - Xiao Cheng Zeng
- Department of Materials Science & Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, 999077, Hong Kong.
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE 68588, USA
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Majumdar J, Moid M, Dasgupta C, Maiti PK. Dielectric Profile and Electromelting of a Monolayer of Water Confined in Graphene Slit Pore. J Phys Chem B 2021; 125:6670-6680. [PMID: 34107687 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c02266] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
A monolayer of water confined between two parallel graphene sheets exists in many different phases and exhibits fascinating dielectric properties that have been studied in experiments. In this work, we use molecular dynamics simulations to study how the dielectric properties of a confined monolayer of water is affected by its structure. We consider six of the popular nonpolarizable water models-SPC/E, SPC/Fw, TIP3P, TIP3P_M (modified), TIP4P-2005, and TIP4P-2005f-and find that the in-plane structure of the water molecules at ambient temperature and pressure is strongly dependent on the water model: all the 3-point water models considered here show square ice formation, whereas no such structural ordering is observed for the 4-point water models. This allows us to investigate the role of the in-plane structure of the water monolayer on its dielectric profile. Our simulations show an anomalous perpendicular dielectric constant compared to the bulk, and the models that do not exhibit ice formation show very different dielectric response along the channel width compared to models that exhibit square ice formation. We also demonstrate the occurrence of electromelting of the in-plane ordered water under the application of a perpendicular electric field and find that the critical field for electromelting strongly depends on the water model. Together, we have shown the dependence of confined water properties on the different water structures that it may take when sandwiched between bilayer graphene. These remarkable properties of confined water can be exploited in various nanofluidic devices, artificial ion channels, and molecular sieving.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeet Majumdar
- Centre for Condensed Matter Theory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
| | - Mohd Moid
- Centre for Condensed Matter Theory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
| | - Chandan Dasgupta
- Centre for Condensed Matter Theory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.,International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bangalore 560089, India
| | - Prabal K Maiti
- Centre for Condensed Matter Theory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
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Both AK, Gao Y, Zeng XC, Cheung CL. Gas hydrates in confined space of nanoporous materials: new frontier in gas storage technology. NANOSCALE 2021; 13:7447-7470. [PMID: 33876814 DOI: 10.1039/d1nr00751c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Gas hydrates (clathrate hydrates, clathrates, or hydrates) are crystalline inclusion compounds composed of water and gas molecules. Methane hydrates, the most well-known gas hydrates, are considered a menace in flow assurance. However, they have also been hailed as an alternative energy resource because of their high methane storage capacity. Since the formation of gas hydrates generally requires extreme conditions, developing porous material hosts to synthesize gas hydrates with less-demanding constraints is a topic of great interest to the materials and energy science communities. Though reports of modeling and experimental analysis of bulk gas hydrates are plentiful in the literature, reliable phase data for gas hydrates within confined spaces of nanoporous media have been sporadic. This review examines recent studies of both experiments and theoretical modeling of gas hydrates within four categories of nanoporous material hosts that include porous carbons, metal-organic frameworks, graphene nanoslits, and carbon nanotubes. We identify challenges associated with these porous systems and discuss the prospects of gas hydrates in confined space for potential applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Avinash Kumar Both
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA.
| | - Yurui Gao
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA.
| | - Xiao Cheng Zeng
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA.
| | - Chin Li Cheung
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA.
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Zhu C, Gao Y, Zhu W, Liu Y, Francisco JS, Zeng XC. Computational Prediction of Novel Ice Phases: A Perspective. J Phys Chem Lett 2020; 11:7449-7461. [PMID: 32787287 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c01635] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Although computational prediction of new ice phases is a niche field in water science, the scientific subject itself is representative of two important areas in physical chemistry, namely, statistical thermodynamics and molecular simulations. The prediction of a variety of novel ice phases has also attracted general public interest since the 1980s. In particular, the prediction of low-dimensional ice phases has gained momentum since the confirmation of a number of low-dimensional "computer ice" phases in the laboratory over the past decade. In this Perspective, the research advancements in computational prediction of novel ice phases over the past few years are reviewed. Particular attention is placed on new ice phases whose physical properties or dimensional structures are distinctly different from conventional bulk ices. Specific topics include the (i) formation of superionic ices, (ii) electrofreezing of water under high pressure and in a high external electric field, (iii) prediction of low-density porous ice at strongly negative pressure, (iv) ab initio computational study of two-dimensional (2D) ice under nanoscale confinement, and (v) 2D ices formed on a solid surface near ambient temperature without nanoscale confinement. Clearly, the formation of most of these novel ice phases demands certain extreme conditions. Ongoing challenges and new opportunities for predicting new ice phases from either classical molecular dynamics simulation or high-level ab initio computation are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chongqin Zhu
- Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, United States
| | - Yurui Gao
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, United States
| | - Weiduo Zhu
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, United States
- Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
| | - Yuan Liu
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, United States
| | - Joseph S Francisco
- Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, United States
| | - Xiao Cheng Zeng
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, United States
- Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, United States
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Abstract
Understanding water wetting layers on solid surfaces is essential for many natural and industrial processes. Here we find a helical ice monolayer with every six water molecules helically arranged along the normal of the basal plane by performing an intensive structural search based on ab initio calculations. The helical ice is more stable than all previous models of monolayer and bilayer ices in a wide range of water densities both in vacuum and on weakly interacting substrates due to a stronger network of hydrogen bonds enabled by the helical geometry. More compelling is the fact that this model adequately explains a recent experimental ice monolayer grown on graphite in terms of the lattice parameter, water density, and Moiré pattern. The helical character in the new ice model echoes previously reported helical motifs in one-dimensional ice structures and suggests an unexpected capability of hydrogen bonds in driving the surface reconstruction of ice structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures and Institute of Nanoscience, Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
| | - Xiaoyu Xuan
- State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures and Institute of Nanoscience, Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
| | - Zhuhua Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures and Institute of Nanoscience, Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
| | - Wanlin Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures and Institute of Nanoscience, Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
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