Related papers: Surface Structure of Organoclays
We use molecular dynamics as a tool to understand the structure and phase transitions [Osman et. al. J. Phys. Chem. B 2000, 104, 4433; 2002, 106, 653] in alkylammonium micas. The consistent force field 91 is extended for accurate simulation…
In a previous work [H. Heinz, H. J. Castelijns, U. W. Suter, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 115, 9500 (2003)], we developed an accurate force field and simulated the phase transitions in C18-mica (octadecyltrimethylammonium-mica) as well as the absence…
Using large-scale molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the surface properties of lithium, sodium, and potassium silicate glasses containing 25 mole % of alkali oxide. The comparison of two types of surfaces, a melt-formed surface…
Microphase separated structure consisting of the periodic alternation of the layers of stretched homopolymer chains surrounded by perpendicularly oriented oligomeric tails is studied for both, strongly bonded (ionic) systems and weakly…
Lateral microsegregation in a monolayer of a binary mixture of particles or macromolecules is studied by MD simulations in a generic model with the interacting potentials inspired by effective interactions in biological or soft-matter…
Crystallization of alkane mixtures has been studied extensively for decades. However, majority of the available data consider the behaviour of alkanes with chain length of 21 C-atoms or more. Furthermore, important information about the…
We use molecular dynamics computer simulations to study the equilibrium properties of the surface of amorphous silica. Two types of geometries are investigated: i) clusters with different diameters (13.5\AA, 19\AA, and 26.5\AA) and ii) a…
Clays control carbon, water and nutrient transport in the lithosphere, promote cloud formation5 and lubricate fault slip through interactions among hydrated mineral interfaces. Clay mineral properties are difficult to model because their…
Liquid crystals have emerged as potential candidates for next-generation lubricants due to their tendency to exhibit long-range ordering. Here, we construct a full atomistic model of 4-cyano-4-hexylbiphenyl (6CB) nematic liquid crystal…
Room temperature ionic liquids (ILs) at solid surfaces have been recognized for their significant interfacial properties in electrochemical and electronic devices. To ascertain the interface effects, we investigate dynamical and structural…
X-shaped liquid crystalline molecules (XLCMs) are obtained by tethering two flexible end A-blocks and two flexible side B-blocks to a rigid backbone (R). A rich array of ordered structures can be formed from XLCMs, driven by the competition…
We study the complex formation between one long polyanion chain and many short oligocation chains by computer simulations. We employ a coarse-grained bead-spring model for the polyelectrolyte chains, and model explicitly the small salt…
The mixed-alkali effect on the cation dynamics in silicate glasses is analyzed via molecular dynamics simulations. Observations suggest a description of the dynamics in terms of stable sites mostly specific to one ionic species. As main…
Impacts of individual slow highly charged ions on alkaline earth halide and alkali halide surfaces create nano-scale surface modifications. For different materials and impact energies a wide variety of topographic alterations have been…
We use \textit{ab initio} molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the properties of the dry surface of pure silica and sodium silicate glasses. The surface layers are defined based on the atomic distributions along the direction…
Alkylsilane self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are often used as model substrates for their ease of preparation and hydrophobic properties. We have observed that these atomically smooth monolayers also provide a slip boundary condition for…
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…
Smectite clay minerals have an outsize impact on the response of clay-rich media to common stimuli, such as water imbibition and ion exchange, motivating extensive effort to understand microscopic behaviors resulting from these processes…
Ion specificity and related Hofmeister effects, ubiquitous in aqueous systems, can have spectacular consequences in hydrated clays, where ion-specific nanoscale surface forces can determine large scale cohesive, swelling and shrinkage…
Explicit molecular dynamics simulations were applied to a pair of amorphous silica nanoparticles in aqueous solution, of diameter 4.4 nm with four different background electrolyte concentrations, to extract the mean force acting between the…