Molecular modeling study on the water-electrode surface interaction in hydrovoltaic energy

The global energy problem caused by the decrease in fossil fuel sources, which have negative effects on human health and the environment, has made it necessary to research alternative energy sources. Renewable energy sources are more advantageous than fossil fuels because they are unlimited in quantity, do not cause great harm to the environment, are safe, and create economic value by reducing foreign dependency because they are obtained from natural resources. With nanotechnology, which enables the development of different technologies to meet energy needs, low-cost and environmentally friendly systems with high energy conversion efficiency are developed. Renewable energy production studies have focused on the development of hydrovoltaic technologies, in which electrical energy is produced by making use of the evaporation of natural water, which is the most abundant in the world. By using nanomaterials such as graphene, carbon nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, and conductive polymers, hydrovoltaic technology provides systems with high energy conversion performance and low cost, which can directly convert the thermal energy resulting from the evaporation of water into electrical energy. The effect of the presence of water on the generation of energy via the interactions between the ion(s) and the liquid-solid surface can be enlightened by the mechanism of the hydovoltaic effect. Here, we simply try to get some tricky information underlying the hydrovoltaic effect by using DFT/B3LYP/6-311G(d, p) computations. Namely, the physicochemical and electronic properties of the graphene surface with a water molecule were investigated, and how/how much these quantities (or parameters) changed in case of the water molecule contained an equal number of charges were analyzed. In these computations, an excess of both positive charge and negative charge, and also a neutral environment was considered by using the Na+, Cl-, and NaCl salt, respectively.

Effects of the Interfacial Modeling Approach on Equilibrium Calculations of Slip Length for Nanoconfined Water in Carbon Slits

In this investigation, equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations were conducted to assess the influence of the interface modeling approach on the calculation of hydrodynamic slip in carbon nanochannels. A Green-Kubo formalism was implemented for the calculation of the slip length in water confined by graphite layers. The nonbonded interactions between solid and liquid atoms (interface models) were modeled using parameters optimized to represent the wetting behavior and adsorption energy curves from electronic structure calculations. Conventional carbon-oxygen-only interaction models were compared against comprehensive models able to represent the molecular-orientation-dependent energy of interaction. Quasi-universal relationships built under the premise of the slip length dependence on the water-graphite affinity and characterized by macroscopic wettability were critically assessed. It was found that the wetting behavior cannot fully characterize the hydrodynamic slip because interface models that produced the same surface wettability yielded different values of the friction coefficient. Alternatively, the density depletion length, used to characterize the interfacial liquid structuring and the availability of momentum carriers (interfacial water molecules), was able to accurately represent the slip length trends independently of the interface model. These findings reassert the importance of physically sound interface models to study interfacial transport properties and the need of reliable parameters and characterization procedures to support theoretical models that seek to unveil the inconsistencies in hydrodynamic slip calculations.

Exclusion Zone Phenomena in Water-A Critical Review of Experimental Findings and Theories

The existence of the exclusion zone (EZ), a layer of water in which plastic microspheres are repelled from hydrophilic surfaces, has now been independently demonstrated by several groups. A better understanding of the mechanisms which generate EZs would help with understanding the possible importance of EZs in biology and in engineering applications such as filtration and microfluidics. Here we review the experimental evidence for EZ phenomena in water and the major theories that have been proposed. We review experimental results from birefringence, neutron radiography, nuclear magnetic resonance, and other studies. Pollack theorizes that water in the EZ exists has a different structure than bulk water, and that this accounts for the EZ. We present several alternative explanations for EZs and argue that Schurr's theory based on diffusiophoresis presents a compelling alternative explanation for the core EZ phenomenon. Among other things, Schurr's theory makes predictions about the growth of the EZ with time which have been confirmed by Florea et al. and others. We also touch on several possible confounding factors that make experimentation on EZs difficult, such as charged surface groups, dissolved solutes, and adsorbed nanobubbles.

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Water Condensation on Surfaces with Tunable Wettability

Water condensation plays a major role in a wide range of industrial applications. Over the past few years, many studies have shown interest in designing surfaces with enhanced water condensation and removal properties. It is well known that heterogeneous nucleation outperforms homogeneous nucleation in the condensation process. Because heterogeneous nucleation initiates on a surface at a small scale, it is highly desirable to characterize water-surface interactions at the molecular level. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can provide direct insight into heterogeneous nucleation and advance surface designs. Existing MD simulations of water condensation on surfaces were conducted by tuning the solid-water van der Waals interaction energy as a substitute for modeling surfaces with different wettabilities. However, this approach cannot reflect the real intermolecular interactions between the surface and water molecules. Here, we report MD simulations of water condensation on realistic surfaces of alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers with different head group chemistries. We show that decreasing surface hydrophobicity significantly increases the electrostatic forces between water molecules and the surface, thus increasing the water condensation rate. We observe a strong correlation between our rate of condensation results and the results from other surface characterization metrics, such as the interfacial thermal conductance, contact angle, and the molecular-scale wettability metric of Garde and co-workers. This work provides insight into the water condensation process at the molecular scale on surfaces with tunable wettability.

Interplay between adsorbed peptide structure, trapped water, and surface hydrophobicity

Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations were used to study the influence of interfacial water on the orientation and conformation of a facewise amphipathic α-helical peptide adsorbed to hydrophilic and hydrophobic substrates. Water behavior beneath the peptide adsorbed to a hydrophilic surface was observed to vary with the height of the peptide above the surface. In general, the orientation of water close to the peptide (with the oxygen atom pointing up toward the peptide) was complementary to that observed near the hydrophilic surface in the absence of peptide. That is, no change in orientation of water trapped between the peptide and a hydrophilic surface is required as the peptide approaches the surface. The adsorption of the peptide to the hydrophilic surface was observed to be mediated by a layer of ordered water. Water was found to be largely excluded on adsorption to the hydrophobic surface. However, the small amount of water present was observed to be highly ordered. At the closest point of contact to the hydrophobic surface, the peptide was observed to make direct contact. These findings shed light on the fundamental driving forces of peptide adsorption to hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces in aqueous environments.

Simulating confined particles with a flat density profile

Particle simulations confined by sharp walls usually develop an oscillatory density profile. For some applications, most notably soft matter liquids, this behavior is often unrealistic and one expects a monotonic density climb instead. To reconcile simulations with experiments, we propose mirror-and-shift boundary conditions where each interface is mapped to a distant part of itself. The main result is that the particle density increases almost monotonically from zero to bulk, over a short distance of about one particle diameter. The method is applied to simulate a polymer brush in explicit solvent, grafted on a flat silicon substrate. The simulated density profile agrees favorably with neutron reflectometry measurements and self-consistent field theory results.

The Search for Nanobubbles by Using Specular and Off-Specular Neutron Reflectometry

We apply specular and off-specular neutron reflection at the hydrophobic silicon/water interface to check for evidence of nanoscopic air bubbles whose presence is claimed after an ad hoc procedure of solvent exchange. Nanobubbles and/or a depletion layer at the hydrophobic/water interface have long been discussed and generated a plethora of controversial scientific results. By combining neutron reflectometry (NR), off-specular reflectometry (OSS), and grazing incidence small angle neutron scattering (GISANS), we studied the interface between hydrophobized silicon and heavy water before and after saturation with nitrogen gas. Our specular reflectometry results can be interpreted by assuming a submolecular sized depletion layer and the off-specular measurements show no change with nitrogen super saturated water. This picture is consistent with the assumption that, following the solvent exchange, no additional nanobubbles are introduced at significant concentrations (if present at all). Furthermore, we discuss the results in terms of the maximum surface coverage of nanobubbles that could be present on the hydrophobic surface compatibly with the sensitivity limit of these techniques.

Recent developments in the theoretical, simulational, and experimental studies of the role of water hydrogen bonding in hydrophobic phenomena

Hydrophobic effects (hydrophobic hydration and hydrophobic interaction) constitute an important element of a wide variety of phenomena relevant to biological, physical, chemical, environmental, engineering, and pharmaceutical sciences, such as the immiscibility of oil and water, self-assembly of amphiphiles leading to micelle and membrane formation, folding and stability and unfolding of the native structure of a biologically active protein, gating of ion channels, wetting, froth floatation, and adhesion. On the other hand, the hydrogen bonding ability of water plays a major (if not crucial) role in hydrophobic phenomena. We present a review of most important and relatively recent experimental, simulational, and theoretical research on hydrophobic phenomena in various systems. With a particular interest we survey investigations clarifying the role of water hydrogen bonding therein, because it has been the main object of our own recent research. We have developed a probabilistic hydrogen bond (PHB) model that allows one to obtain an analytic expression for the number of bonds per water molecule as a function of its distance to a hydrophobe, hydrophobe radius, and temperature. Knowing that function, one can explicitly identify a water hydrogen bond contribution to the external potential whereto a water molecule is subjected near a hydrophobe. Combining the PHB model with the classical density functional theory (DFT), one can examine the contribution of water hydrogen bonding to the temperature and lengthscale effects on the hydration of particles and on their solvent-mediated interactions over the entire low-to-high temperature and small-to-large lengthscale ranges. We applied the combined DFT/PHB model to study a variety of hydrophobic phenomena such as (liquid) water in contact with a hydrophobic plate, solvation of spherical solutes of various radii in associated and non-associated liquids at various temperatures, the solvent-mediated interaction of spherical solutes and its temperature dependence, interaction of C60 fullerenes in water, temperature effect on the evaporation lengthscale of water confined between two hydrophobes, temperature dependence of the effective width of the solute-solvent transition layer and average density therein. These applications demonstrated that the DFT/PHB model can serve as a valuable tool in studying hydrophobic phenomena because it constitutes a balanced combination of simplicity, accuracy, and detail. The predictions of the combined DFT/PHB approach for the solvent density profiles and thermodynamic aspects of hydrophobic phenomena are generally in good agreement with experiments and simulations. For example, it predicts the small-to-large crossover lengthscale of its mechanism to be approximately in the range from 1nm to 4nm, and decreasing with increasing temperature. It also suggests that, in terms of the average fluid density in the solute-solvent transition layer, the transition layer for small hydrophobes (of radii ≲2 nm) becomes enriched with rather than depleted of fluid when both the solvent-solute affinity and hb-energy alteration ratio become large enough. The boundary values of these parameters, needed for the depletion-to-enrichment crossover, are predicted to decrease with increasing temperature.

Fluid transition layer between rigid solute and liquid solvent: is there depletion or enrichment?

The fluid layer between solute and liquid solvent is studied by combining the density functional theory with the probabilistic hydrogen bond model. This combination allows one to obtain the equilibrium distribution of fluid molecules, taking into account the hydrogen bond contribution to the external potential whereto they are subjected near the solute. One can find the effective width of the fluid solvent-solute transition layer and fluid average density in that layer, and determine their dependence on temperature, solvent-solute affinity, vicinal hydrogen bond (hb) energy alteration ratio, and solute radius. Numerical calculations are performed for the solvation of a plate and spherical solutes of four different radii in two model solvents (associated liquid and non-associated one) in the temperature range from 293 K to 333 K for various solvent-solute affinities and hydrogen bond energy alteration ratios. The predictions of our model for the effective width and average density of the transition layer are consistent with experiments and simulations. The small-to-large crossover lengthscale for hydrophobic hydration is expected to be about 3-5 nm. Remarkably, characterizing the transition layer with the average density, one can observe that for small hydrophobes, the transition layer becomes enriched with rather than depleted of fluid when the solvent-solute affinity and hb-energy alteration ratio become large enough. The boundary values of solvent-solute affinity and hb-energy alteration ratio, needed for the "depletion-to-enrichment" crossover (in the smoothed density sense), are predicted to decrease with increasing temperature.

Solid surface structure affects liquid order at the polystyrene-self-assembled-monolayer interface

We present a combined x-ray and neutron reflectivity study characterizing the interface between polystyrene (PS) and silanized surfaces. Motivated by the large difference in slip velocity of PS on top of dodecyl-trichlorosilane (DTS) and octadecyl-trichlorosilane (OTS) found in previous studies, these two systems were chosen for the present investigation. The results reveal the molecular conformation of PS on silanized silicon. Differences in the molecular tilt of OTS and DTS are replicated by the adjacent phenyl rings of the PS. We discuss our findings in terms of a potential link between the microscopic interfacial structure and dynamic properties of polymeric liquids at interfaces.

Effect of dehydration on the interfacial water structure at a charged polymer surface: negligible χ(3) contribution to sum frequency generation signal

Interfacial water structure at charged surfaces plays a key role in many physical, chemical, biological, environmental, and industrial processes. Understanding the release of interfacial water from the charged solid surfaces during dehydration process may provide insights into the mechanism of protein folding and the nature of weak molecular interactions. In this work, sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFG-VS), supplemented by quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) measurements, has been applied to study the interfacial water structure at polyelectrolyte covered surfaces. Poly[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate] (PDMAEMA) chains are grafted on solid surfaces to investigate the change of interfacial water structure with varying surface charge density induced by tuning the solution pH. At pH ≤ 7.1, SFG-VS intensity is linear to the loss of mass of interfacial water caused by the dehydration of PDMAEMA chains, and no reorientation of the strongly bonded water molecules is observed in the light of χ(ppp)/χ(ssp) ratio. χ((3)) contribution to SFG signal is deduced based on the combination of SFG and QCM results. It is the first direct experimental evidence to reveal that the χ((3)) has a negligible contribution to SFG signal of the interfacial water at a charged polymer surface.

A general Poisson-Boltzmann model with position-dependent dielectric permittivity for electric double layer analysis

In this paper, we propose a general Poisson-Boltzmann model for electric double layer (EDL) analysis with the position dependence of dielectric permittivity considered. This model provides physically reasonable property profiles in the EDL region, and it is then utilized to investigate the depletion layer effect on EDL structure and interaction near hydrophobic surfaces. Our results show that both the electric potential and the interaction pressure between surfaces decrease due to the lower permittivity in the depletion layer. The reduction becomes more profound at larger variation magnitude and range. This trend is in general agreement with that observed from the previous stepwise model; however, that model has overestimated the influence of permittivity variation effect. For the thin depletion layer and the relative thick EDL, our calculation indicates that the permittivity variation effect on EDL usually can be neglected. Furthermore, our model can be readily extended to study the permittivity variation in EDL due to ion accumulation and hydration in the EDL region.

How water meets a very hydrophobic surface

Is there a low-density region ("gap") between water and a hydrophobic surface? Previous x-ray and neutron reflectivity results have been inconsistent because the effect (if any) is subresolution for the surfaces studied. We have used x-ray reflectivity to probe the interface between water and more hydrophobic smooth surfaces. The depleted region width increases with contact angle and becomes larger than the resolution, allowing definitive measurements. Large fluctuations are predicted at this interface; however, we find that their contribution to the interface roughness is too small to measure.

Chlorine activation indoors and outdoors via surface-mediated reactions of nitrogen oxides with hydrogen chloride

Gaseous HCl generated from a variety of sources is ubiquitous in both outdoor and indoor air. Oxides of nitrogen (NO(y)) are also globally distributed, because NO formed in combustion processes is oxidized to NO(2), HNO(3), N(2)O(5) and a variety of other nitrogen oxides during transport. Deposition of HCl and NO(y) onto surfaces is commonly regarded as providing permanent removal mechanisms. However, we show here a new surface-mediated coupling of nitrogen oxide and halogen activation cycles in which uptake of gaseous NO(2) or N(2)O(5) on solid substrates generates adsorbed intermediates that react with HCl to generate gaseous nitrosyl chloride (ClNO) and nitryl chloride (ClNO(2)), respectively. These are potentially harmful gases that photolyze to form highly reactive chlorine atoms. The reactions are shown both experimentally and theoretically to be enhanced by water, a surprising result given the availability of competing hydrolysis reaction pathways. Airshed modeling incorporating HCl generated from sea salt shows that in coastal urban regions, this heterogeneous chemistry increases surface-level ozone, a criteria air pollutant, greenhouse gas and source of atmospheric oxidants. In addition, it may contribute to recently measured high levels of ClNO(2) in the polluted coastal marine boundary layer. This work also suggests the potential for chlorine atom chemistry to occur indoors where significant concentrations of oxides of nitrogen and HCl coexist.

Microscopic wetting of mixed self-assembled monolayers: a molecular dynamics study

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the evolution of the organization of water molecules on the flat surface of well-ordered self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of eight-carbon alkanethiolate chains bound to a gold substrate, as the character of the surface is finely tuned from completely hydrophobic to completely hydrophilic, and as the level of hydration is increased from submonolayer to the equivalent of about two monolayers of water. The hydrophilicity of the SAM surfaces is increased by randomly replacing methyl-terminated alkanethiolate chains with carboxylic acid-terminated chains. We report on the evolution of the structure of the surfaces of the SAMs, both in the absence and presence of water, and the organization of water molecules and the extent of wetting of the surfaces, as the fraction of hydrophilic groups is increased. The results suggest that on the flat organic surfaces with a small fraction of the hydrophilic components the hydrophilic spots serve as nucleation sites, resulting in the growth of a larger number of (smaller) water droplets compared to the completely hydrophobic surface, whereas on the surfaces with a large fraction of the hydrophilic component the uptake of water proceeds via a water film growing, at first, over the hydrophilic domains and, eventually, bridging over the hydrophobic patches, and spreading out over the entire surface. We discuss the implications of these processes on the properties of the organic aerosols in the atmosphere.

Quantitative biological surface science: challenges and recent advances

Biological surface science is a broad, interdisciplinary subfield of surface science, where properties and processes at biological and synthetic surfaces and interfaces are investigated, and where biofunctional surfaces are fabricated. The need to study and to understand biological surfaces and interfaces in liquid environments provides sizable challenges as well as fascinating opportunities. Here, we report on recent progress in biological surface science that was described within the program assembled by the Biomaterial Interface Division of the Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces and Processes (www.avs.org) during their 55th International Symposium and Exhibition held in Boston, October 19-24, 2008. The selected examples show that the rapid progress in nanoscience and nanotechnology, hand-in-hand with theory and simulation, provides increasingly sophisticated methods and tools to unravel the mechanisms and details of complex processes at biological surfaces and in-depth understanding of biomolecular surface interactions.