Mei Feng, Zhou Xiaoyan, Kou Jianlong, Wu Fengmin, Wang Chunlei, Lu Hangjun
Department of Physics, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China.
Division of Interfacial Water and Key Laboratory of Interfacial Physics and Technology, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 800-204, Shanghai 201800, China.
J Chem Phys. 2015 Apr 7;142(13):134704. doi: 10.1063/1.4916521.
The effects of an electric field on the phase behavior of water confined inside a nanoscale space were studied using molecular dynamics simulations. It was found that the diffusion coefficient of water reaches its maximum when value of the surfaces' charge is at the threshold, qc = 0.5e. This unexpected phenomenon was attributed to the intermediate state between two stable ice states induced by nanoconfinement and the electric field generated by charged surfaces, respectively. Our finding is helpful to understand electromelting and electrofreezing of water under nanoconfinement with the electric field.
