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arXiv 1502.05436cond-mat.softcond-mat.mtrl-sciphysics.chem-ph
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疏水限制中的去湿途径

Pathways to dewetting in hydrophobic confinement

Richard C. Remsing, Erte Xi, Srivathsan Vembanur, Sumit Sharma, Pablo G. Debenedetti, Shekhar Garde, Amish J. Patel

摘要:

液态水在疏水限制下相对于其蒸汽可以变得亚稳态。由此产生的去湿过渡往往阻碍了大的动力学障碍。根据宏观理论,这样的屏障来自于使跨越两个疏水表面之间的区域的临界蒸气管成核所需的自由能-具有较小半径的管塌陷,而较大半径的管生长以干燥整个受限区域。使用广泛的分子模拟水之间的两个纳米级的疏水表面,结合先进的采样技术,在这里,我们表明,表面间的分离,vanically有利于去湿,去湿的障碍不对应于形成(经典)的临界蒸汽管。相反,它对应于一个突然的过渡,从一个孤立的空腔附近的一个限制表面的间隙跨越蒸汽管已经大于宏观理论预期的临界蒸汽管。相应地,去湿势垒也小于经典的预期。我们发现,水密度波动的特殊性质邻近扩展疏水表面-即,观察低密度波动相对于高斯统计的可能性增强-促进这种非经典行为。通过稳定相对于蒸汽管的隔离腔,增强的水密度波动从而稳定新的路径,其绕过经典障碍并提供减小的抗去湿性。因此,我们的研究结果表明,波动在加速从超疏水表面上的Cassie-Wenzel转换到疏水驱动的生物分子折叠和组装的众多现象的动力学方面起着关键作用。

英文摘要:

Liquid water can become metastable with respect to its vapor in hydrophobic confinement. The resulting dewetting transitions are often impeded by large kinetic barriers. According to macroscopic theory, such barriers arise from the free energy required to nucleate a critical vapor tube that spans the region between two hydrophobic surfaces - tubes with smaller radii collapse, whereas larger ones grow to dry the entire confined region. Using extensive molecular simulations of water between two nanoscopic hydrophobic surfaces, in conjunction with advanced sampling techniques, here we show that for inter-surface separations that thermodynamically favor dewetting, the barrier to dewetting does not correspond to the formation of a (classical) critical vapor tube. Instead, it corresponds to an abrupt transition from an isolated cavity adjacent to one of the confining surfaces to a gap-spanning vapor tube that is already larger than the critical vapor tube anticipated by macroscopic theory. Correspondingly, the barrier to dewetting is also smaller than the classical expectation. We show that the peculiar nature of water density fluctuations adjacent to extended hydrophobic surfaces - namely, the enhanced likelihood of observing low-density fluctuations relative to Gaussian statistics - facilitates this non-classical behavior. By stabilizing isolated cavities relative to vapor tubes, enhanced water density fluctuations thus stabilize novel pathways, which circumvent the classical barriers and offer diminished resistance to dewetting. Our results thus suggest a key role for fluctuations in speeding up the kinetics of numerous phenomena ranging from Cassie-Wenzel transitions on superhydrophobic surfaces, to hydrophobically-driven biomolecular folding and assembly.

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