Structural properties and liquid spinodal of water confined in a hydrophobic environment

Abstract

We present the results of a computer simulation study of thermodynamical properties of TIP4P water confined in a hydrophobic disordered matrix of soft spheres upon supercooling. The hydrogen bond network of water appears preserved in this hydrophobic confinement. Nonetheless a reduction in the average number of hydrogen bonds due to the geometrical constraints is observed. The liquid branch of the spinodal line is calculated from 350 K down to 210 K. The same thermodynamic scenario of the bulk is found: the spinodal curve is monotonically decreasing. The line of maximum density bends avoiding a crossing of the spinodal. There is however a shift both of the line of maximum density and of the spinodal toward higher pressures and lower temperatures with respect to bulk.

7 pages, 12 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Observation of the Density Minimum in Deeply Supercooled Confined Water
• Effect of water-wall interaction potential on the properties of nanoconfined water
• Spinodal of supercooled polarizable water

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Anomalies in a waterlike model confined between plates
• Absence of a Diffusion Anomaly in Water Perpendicular to Hydrophobic Nanoconfining Walls
• Thermodynamic behaviour and structural properties of an aqueous sodium chloride solution upon supercooling
• Effect of concentration on the thermodynamics of sodium chloride aqueous solutions in the supercooled regime