Related papers: How water binds to microcline feldspar (001)
Ice is a major component of astrophysical environment - from interstellar molecular clouds through protoplanetary disks to evolved solar systems. Ice and complex organic matter coexist in these environments as well, and it is thought…
Ice formation is one of the most common and important processes on earth and almost always occurs at the surface of a material. A basic understanding of how the physicochemical properties of a material's surface affect its ability to form…
Diamond and diamond-like carbon (DLC) are used as coating materials for numerous applications, ranging from biomedicine to tribology. Recently, it has been shown that the hydrophilicity of the carbon films can be enhanced by silicon doping,…
Clean oxide surfaces are generally hydrophilic. Water molecules anchor at undercoordinated surface metal atoms that act as Lewis-acid sites, and they are stabilized by H bonds to undercoordinated surface oxygens. The large unit cell of…
Water-metal interfaces are ubiquitous and play a key role in many chemical processes, from catalysis to corrosion. Whereas water adlayers on atomically flat transition metal surfaces have been investigated in depth, little is known about…
While individual water molecules adsorb strongly on a talc surface (hydrophilic behavior), a droplet of water beads up on the same surface (hydrophobic behavior). To rationalize this dichotomy, we investigate the influence of the…
Understanding the history and evolution of small bodies, such as dust grains and comets, in planet-forming disks is very important to reveal the architectural laws responsible for the creation of planetary systems. These small bodies in…
The interaction of water with surfaces is crucially important in a wide range of natural and technological settings. In particular, at low temperatures, unveiling the atomistic structure of adsorbed water clusters would provide valuable…
The adsorption of a collagen fragment on both a hydrophobic, hydrogen-terminated and a hydrophilic, natively oxidised Si surface is investigated using all-atom molecular dynamics. While favourable direct protein-surface interactions via…
It is surprisingly difficult to freeze water. Almost all ice that forms under "mild" conditions (temperatures > -40 degrees Celsius) requires the presence of a nucleating agent - a solid particle that facilitates the freezing process - such…
First-principles density-functional theory and supercell models are employed to calculate the adsorption of water molecules on the Cu(100) surface. In agreement with the experimental observations, the calculations show that a H2O molecule…
Freezing of water is arguably one of the most common phase transitions on Earth and almost always happens heterogeneously. Despite its importance, we lack a fundamental understanding of what makes substrates efficient ice nucleators. Here…
Context. Carbon monoxide (CO) is arguably the most important molecule for interstellar organic chemistry. Its binding to amorphous solid water (ASW) ice regulates both diffusion and desorption processes. Accurately characterizing the CO…
Despite its importance in atmospheric science, much remains unknown about the microscopic mechanism of heterogeneous ice nucleation. In this work, we perform hybrid Monte Carlo simulations of the heterogeneous nucleation of ice on a range…
Determining the structure of water adsorbed on solid surfaces is a notoriously difficult task, and pushes the limits of experimental and theoretical techniques. Here, we follow the evolution of water agglomerates on Fe3O4(001); a complex…
Context. Millimetric observations have measured high degrees of molecular deuteration in several species seen around low-mass protostars. The Herschel Space Telescope, launched in 2009, is now providing new measures of the deuterium…
Capillary condensation of water is ubiquitous in nature and technology. It routinely occurs in granular and porous media, can strongly alter such properties as adhesion, lubrication, friction and corrosion, and is important in many…
Existence of strongly bound water molecules on silicate surfaces, above the desorption temperature of water ice, has been first predicted by computational studies and recently demonstrated by laboratory experiments. Such trapped water may…
Ice nucleation is a process of great relevance in physics, chemistry, technology and environmental sciences, much theoretical and experimental efforts have been devoted to its understanding, but still it remains a topic of intense research.…
Interactions between organic species and natural minerals are fundamental to the processes around us. With the aid of molecular dynamics simulations, we identify key adsorption mechanisms of apigenin on smectite clay minerals. The mechanism…