Effects of surface polar unit densities on evaporation of nanosized water aggregation

The evaporation behavior of nanosized water aggregations on two-dimensional electroneutral solid surfaces with different surface polar unit densities (p) was investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. Unexpectedly, the evaporation rate (R) changes non-monotonically with p. More interestingly, the minimum R, which was only 0.6 % of that on the nonpolar solid surface, was obtained when the solid surface had a modest surface polar unit ratio of 66.7 % (p = 25.8 #/nm2) instead of the intuitively expected 100 % (i.e., every atom is charged). Our findings should be helpful in designing artificial surfaces with moisturizing functions.

Automated summary

The evaporation behavior of nanosized water aggregations on two-dimensional electroneutral solid surfaces with different surface polar unit densities was investigated. The results showed that the evaporation rate changes non-monotonically with the surface polar unit density, and the minimum evaporation rate is obtained when the surface has a modest surface polar unit ratio of 66.7%.