Dynamic Solidification in Nanoconfined Water Films
Soft Condensed Matter
2015-05-19 v1 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Materials Science
Abstract
The mechanical properties of nanoconfined water layers are still poorly understood and continue to create considerable controversy, despite their importance for biology and nanotechnology. Here, we report on dynamic nanomechanical measurements of water films compressed down to a few single molecular layers. We show that the mechanical properties of nanoconfined water layers change dramatically with their dynamic state. In particular, we observed a sharp transition from viscous to elastic response even at extremely slow compression rates, indicating that mechanical relaxation times increase dramatically once water is compressed to less than 3-4 molecular layers.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1006.3320,
title = {Dynamic Solidification in Nanoconfined Water Films},
author = {Shah H. Khan and George Matei and Shivprasad Patil and Peter M. Hoffmann},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1006.3320},
year = {2015}
}