The viscoelastic dynamics of nano-confined water is studied by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM). We observe a nonlinear viscoelastic behavior remarkably similar to that widely observed in metastable complex fluids. We show that the origin of the measured nonlinear viscoelasticity in nano-confined water is a strain rate dependent relaxation time and slow dynamics. By measuring the viscoelastic modulus at different frequencies and strains, we find that the intrinsic relaxation time of nano-confined water is in the range 0.1-0.0001 s, orders of magnitude longer than that of bulk water, and comparable to the dielectric relaxation time measured in supercooled water at 170-210 K.
@article{arxiv.0707.2521,
title = {Nonlinear viscoelastic dynamics of nano-confined water},
author = {Tai-De Li and Elisa Riedo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0707.2521},
year = {2009}
}