Related papers: Hydration structure of diamondoids from reactive f…
We use molecular dynamics computer simulations and nuclear magnetic resonance experiments to investigate the dynamics of water at interfaces of molecular roughness and low mobility. We find that, when approaching such interfaces, the…
A theoretical approach is developed to quantify hydrophobic hydration and interactions on a molecular scale, with the goal of gaining insight into the molecular origins of hydrophobic effects. The model is based on the fundamental relation…
The design of better heterogeneous catalysts for applications such as fuel cells and electrolyzers requires a mechanistic understanding of electrocatalytic reactions and the dependence of their activity on operating conditions such as pH. A…
It is not yet clear what drives the adsorption of ions on detonation nanodiamonds (DNDs), which plays a critical role on the loading (unloading) of chemotherapeutic drugs on (from) the surface of DNDs in their targeted therapy applications.…
Soft matter materials, such as polymers, membranes, proteins, are often electrically charged. This makes them water soluble, which is of great importance in technological application and a prerequisite for biological function. We discuss a…
The $\alpha$ polymorph of V$_2$O$_5$ is one of the few known cathodes capable of reversibly intercalating multivalent ions such as Mg, Ca, Zn and Al, but suffers from sluggish diffusion kinetics. The role of H$_2$O within the electrolyte…
We studied the hydration of a single methanol molecule in aqueous solution by first-principle DFT-based molecular dynamics simulation. The calculations show that the local structural and short-time dynamical properties of the water…
Collagen type I is well-known for its outstanding mechanical properties which it inherits from its hierarchical structure. Collagen type I fibrils may be viewed as an heterogeneous material made of protein, macromolecules (such as…
With molecular simulation for water and a tunable hydrophobic substrate, we apply the instantaneous interface construction [A. P. Willard and D. Chandler, J. Phys. Chem. B, 114, 1954 (2010)] to examine the similarity between a water-vapor…
The contact of water with graphene is of fundamental importance and of great interest for numerous promising applications, but how graphene interacts with water remains unclear. Here we used atomic force microscopy to investigate…
To calculate the solvation of hydrophobic solutes we have developed the method based on the fundamental measure treatment of the density functional theory. This method allows us to carry out calculations of density profiles and the…
To better understand lipid membranes in living organisms, the study of intermolecular forces using the osmotic pressure technique applied to model lipid membranes has constituted the ground knowledge in the field of biophysics since four…
Recent measurements of microsphere interactions in diverse media suggest that the standard dielectric-continuum models of solution-phase interactions are fundamentally incomplete. Experiments indicate that the interactions of charged…
The standard hydrodynamic Drude model with hard-wall boundary conditions can give accurate quantitative predictions for the optical response of noble-metal nanoparticles. However, it is less accurate for other metallic nanosystems, where…
Rigid, cage-like molecules, like diamondoids, show unique self-assembly behavior, such as templating 1-D nanomaterial assembly via pathways that are typically blocked for such bulky substituents. We investigate molecular forces between…
Ferrofluids are strongly magnetic fluids consisting of magnetic nanoparticles dispersed in a carrier fluid. Besides their technological applications, they have a tendency to form beautiful and intriguing patterns when subjected to external…
Understanding contact line dynamics on superhydrophobic surfaces with microscopic structures is essential for designing materials with reduced drag, anti-icing, self-cleaning, and anti-fouling properties. Using numerical simulations, we…
Liquid water is reluctant to lose hydrogen-bond coordination. Here we reveal that it also demands contraction and reorientation of the second molecular shell to compensate for coordination defects. Such molecular principle will be shown to…
Quantum effects play a significant role in nanometric plasmonic devices, such as small metal clusters and metallic nanoshells. For structures containing a large number of electrons, ab-initio methods such as the time-dependent density…
Polyamide membranes, such as nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, are widely used for water desalination and purification. However, the mechanisms of solute transport and solute rejection due to charge interactions remain…