Journal
ACS NANO
Volume 15, Issue 12, Pages 20311-20318Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.1c08512
Keywords
dielectric constant; confined water; molecular dynamics; surface wettability; surface tuning
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [12034019]
- Slovenian Research Agency [P1-0002]
- Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) [s930]
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Water's tunable polarity can be utilized in various emerging technologies such as catalysis and gas storage. Studies have shown that water can become effectively nonpolar under nanoconfinement. By altering the wettability of the confining material, the dielectric constant of water can be modified, demonstrating the feasibility of tunable water polarity with great potential for scientific and technological impact.
The tunable polarity of water can be exploited in emerging technologies including catalysis, gas storage, and green chemistry. Recent experimental and theoretical studies have shown that water can be rendered into an effectively apolar solvent under nanoconfinement. We furthermore demonstrate, through molecular simulations, that the static dielectric constant of water can be modified by changing the wettability of the confining material. We find the out-of-plane dielectric response to be highly sensitive to the level of confinement and can be reduced up to 40X , in accordance with experimental data. By altering the surface wettability from superhydrophilic to superhydrophobic, we observe a 36% increase for the out-of-plane and a 31% decrease for the in-plane dielectric constants. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of tunable water polarity, a phenomenon with great potential for scientific and technological impact.
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