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Iannetti L, Cambiaso S, Rasera F, Giacomello A, Rossi G, Bochicchio D, Tinti A. The surface tension of Martini 3 water mixtures. J Chem Phys 2024; 161:084707. [PMID: 39189655 DOI: 10.1063/5.0221199] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2024] [Accepted: 07/17/2024] [Indexed: 08/28/2024] Open
Abstract
The Martini model, a coarse-grained forcefield for biomolecular simulations, has experienced a vast increase in popularity in the past decade. Its building-block approach balances computational efficiency with high chemical specificity, enabling the simulation of organic and inorganic molecules. The modeling of coarse-grained beads as Lennard-Jones particles poses challenges for the accurate reproduction of liquid-vapor interfacial properties, which are crucial in various applications, especially in the case of water. The latest version of the forcefield introduces refined interaction parameters for water beads, tackling the well-known artifact of Martini water freezing at room temperature. In addition, multiple sizes of water beads are available for simulating the solvation of small cavities, including the smallest pockets of proteins. This work focuses on studying the interfacial properties of Martini water, including surface tension and surface thickness. Employing the test-area method, we systematically compute the liquid-vapor surface tension across various combinations of water bead sizes and for temperatures from 300 to 350 K. These findings are of interest to the Martini community as they allow users to account for the low interfacial tension of Martini water by properly adjusting observables computed via coarse-grained simulations to allow for accurate matching against all-atom or experimental results. Surface tension data are also interpreted in terms of local enrichment of the various mixture components at the liquid-vapor interface by means of Gibbs' adsorption formalism. Finally, the critical scaling of the Martini surface tension with temperature is reported to be consistent with the critical exponent of the 3D Ising universality class.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lorenzo Iannetti
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica ed Aerospaziale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Roma, Italy
| | - Sonia Cambiaso
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Università of Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy
| | - Fabio Rasera
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica ed Aerospaziale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Roma, Italy
| | - Alberto Giacomello
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica ed Aerospaziale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Roma, Italy
| | - Giulia Rossi
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Università of Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy
| | - Davide Bochicchio
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Università of Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy
| | - Antonio Tinti
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica ed Aerospaziale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Roma, Italy
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Iliev P, Pesheva N, Iliev S. Contact angle hysteresis on nonwetting microstructured surfaces: Effect of randomly distributed pillars or holes. Phys Rev E 2024; 110:024801. [PMID: 39294994 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.110.024801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2024] [Accepted: 07/12/2024] [Indexed: 09/21/2024]
Abstract
We present a numerical study of the advancing and receding apparent contact angles for a liquid meniscus in contact with an ultrahydrophobic surface with randomly distributed microsized pillars or holes in the Cassie's wetting regime. We study the Wilhelmy plate system in the framework of the full capillary model to obtain these angles using the heterogeneous surface approximation model for a broad interval of values of pillar or hole concentration and for both square and circular shapes of the pillars or holes cross-section. Three types of random placing of defects on the plate are investigated, i.e., two with restrictions: (1) with maximum and (2) with minimum distance between the defects (in these cases the defects are isolated), and (3) without restrictions (the defects can overlap). The results show that the type of defect distribution and also the type of the defects shape (circular or square) does not affect the magnitude of the two angles. The results of the numerical simulations showed that the retention force for a plate with randomly located defects is not greater, and for larger concentrations of pillars or holes, it is smaller than that for periodically spaced ones. Comparisons with experimental results for the receding contact angle on surfaces with pillars and with the advancing contact angle on surfaces with periodically arranged holes is carried out.
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Debenedetti PG, Kim YY, Meldrum FC, Tanaka H. Special Topic Preface: Nucleation-Current understanding approaching 150 years after Gibbs. J Chem Phys 2024; 160:100401. [PMID: 38465675 DOI: 10.1063/5.0203119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2024] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 03/12/2024] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Pablo G Debenedetti
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
| | - Yi-Yeoun Kim
- School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
| | - Fiona C Meldrum
- School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
| | - Hajime Tanaka
- Department of Fundamental Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
- Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan
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Bratko D. Reversible Surface Energy Storage in Molecular-Scale Porous Materials. Molecules 2024; 29:664. [PMID: 38338408 PMCID: PMC10856011 DOI: 10.3390/molecules29030664] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2023] [Revised: 01/24/2024] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 02/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Forcible wetting of hydrophobic pores represents a viable method for energy storage in the form of interfacial energy. The energy used to fill the pores can be recovered as pressure-volume work upon decompression. For efficient recovery, the expulsion pressure should not be significantly lower than the pressure required for infiltration. Hysteresis of the wetting/drying cycle associated with the kinetic barrier to liquid expulsion results in energy dissipation and reduced storage efficiency. In the present work, we use open ensemble (Grand Canonical) Monte Carlo simulations to study the improvement of energy recovery with decreasing diameters of planar pores. Near-complete reversibility is achieved at pore widths barely accommodating a monolayer of the liquid, thus minimizing the area of the liquid/gas interface during the cavitation process. At the same time, these conditions lead to a steep increase in the infiltration pressure required to overcome steric wall/water repulsion in a tight confinement and a considerable reduction in the translational entropy of confined molecules. In principle, similar effects can be expected when increasing the size of the liquid particles without altering the absorbent porosity. While the latter approach is easier to follow in laboratory work, we discuss the advantages of reducing the pore diameter, which reduces the cycling hysteresis while simultaneously improving the stored-energy density in the material.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dusan Bratko
- Department of Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23221, USA
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Le Donne A, Littlefair JD, Tortora M, Merchiori S, Bartolomé L, Grosu Y, Meloni S. Hydrophobicity of molecular-scale textured surfaces: The case of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks, an atomistic perspective. J Chem Phys 2023; 159:184709. [PMID: 37955326 DOI: 10.1063/5.0173110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2023] [Accepted: 10/19/2023] [Indexed: 11/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Hydrophobicity has proven fundamental in an inexhaustible amount of everyday applications. Material hydrophobicity is determined by chemical composition and geometrical characteristics of its macroscopic surface. Surface roughness or texturing enhances intrinsic hydrophilic or hydrophobic characteristics of a material. Here we consider crystalline surfaces presenting molecular-scale texturing typical of crystalline porous materials, e.g., metal-organic frameworks. In particular, we investigate one such material with remarkable hydrophobic qualities, ZIF-8. We show that ZIF-8 hydrophobicity is driven not only by its chemical composition but also its sub-nanoscale surface corrugations, a physical enhancement rare amongst hydrophobes. Studying ZIF-8's hydrophobic properties is challenging as experimentally it is difficult to distinguish between the materials' and the macroscopic corrugations' contributions to the hydrophobicity. The computational contact angle determination is also difficult as the standard "geometric" technique of liquid nanodroplet deposition is prone to many artifacts. Here, we characterise ZIF-8 hydrophobicity via: (i) the "geometric" approach and (ii) the "energetic" method, utilising the Young-Dupré formula and computationally determining the liquid-solid adhesion energy. Both approaches reveal nanoscale Wenzel-like bathing of the corrugated surface. Moreover, we illustrate the importance of surface linker termination in ZIF-8 hydrophobicity, which reduces when varied from sp3 N to sp2 N termination. We also consider halogenated analogues of the methyl-imidazole linker, which promote the transition from nanoWenzel-like to nanoCassie-Baxter-like states, further enhancing surface hydrophobicity. Present results reveal the complex interface physics and chemistry between water and complex porous, molecular crystalline surfaces, providing a hint to tune their hydrophobicity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Le Donne
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Farmaceutiche ed Agrarie (DOCPAS), Università degli Studi di Ferrara (Unife), Via Luigi Borsari 46, I-44121 Ferrara, Italy
| | - Josh D Littlefair
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Farmaceutiche ed Agrarie (DOCPAS), Università degli Studi di Ferrara (Unife), Via Luigi Borsari 46, I-44121 Ferrara, Italy
| | - Marco Tortora
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica e Aerospaziale, Universitá di Roma "Sapienza," Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy
| | - Sebastiano Merchiori
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Farmaceutiche ed Agrarie (DOCPAS), Università degli Studi di Ferrara (Unife), Via Luigi Borsari 46, I-44121 Ferrara, Italy
| | - Luis Bartolomé
- Centre for Cooperative Research on Alternative Energies (CIC energiGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Alava Technology Park, Albert Einstein 48, 01510 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
| | - Yaroslav Grosu
- Centre for Cooperative Research on Alternative Energies (CIC energiGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Alava Technology Park, Albert Einstein 48, 01510 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
- Institute of Chemistry, University of Silesia in Katowice, Szkolna 9, 40-006 Katowice, Poland
| | - Simone Meloni
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Farmaceutiche ed Agrarie (DOCPAS), Università degli Studi di Ferrara (Unife), Via Luigi Borsari 46, I-44121 Ferrara, Italy
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Giacomello A. What keeps nanopores boiling. J Chem Phys 2023; 159:110902. [PMID: 37724724 DOI: 10.1063/5.0167530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2023] [Accepted: 08/29/2023] [Indexed: 09/21/2023] Open
Abstract
The liquid-to-vapor transition can occur under unexpected conditions in nanopores, opening the door to fundamental questions and new technologies. The physics of boiling in confinement is progressively introduced, starting from classical nucleation theory, passing through nanoscale effects, and terminating with the material and external parameters that affect the boiling conditions. The relevance of boiling in specific nanoconfined systems is discussed, focusing on heterogeneous lyophobic systems, chromatographic columns, and ion channels. The current level of control of boiling in nanopores enabled by microporous materials such as metal organic frameworks and biological nanopores paves the way to thrilling theoretical challenges and to new technological opportunities in the fields of energy, neuromorphic computing, and sensing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alberto Giacomello
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica e Aerospaziale, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00184 Rome, Italy
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