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Dewetting-induced collapse of hydrophobic particles
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Dewetting-induced collapse of hydrophobic particles

X Huang, C. J Margulis and B. J Berne
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol.100(21), pp.11953-11958
10/14/2003
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1934837100
PMCID: PMC218694
PMID: 14507993
url
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1934837100View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

A molecular dynamics study of the depletion of water (drying) around a single and between two hydrophobic nanoscale oblate plates in explicit water as a function of the distance of separation between them, their size, and the strength of the attraction between the plates and the water molecules is presented. A simple macroscopic thermodynamic model based on Young's law successfully predicts drying between the stacked plates and accounts for the free-energy barriers to this drying. However, because drying around a single plate is not macroscopic, a molecular theory is required to describe it. The data are consistent with the rate-determining step in the hydrophobic collapse of the two plates being a large-scale drying fluctuation, characterized by a free-energy barrier that grows with particle size.
Physical Sciences

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