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Measuring the Interaction Force Between a Droplet and a Super-hydrophobic Substrate by the Optical Lever Method
Published on: June 14, 2019
Hydrophobic interactions of hexane in nanosized water droplets
Dirar Homouz1, Byron Hoffman, Margaret S Cheung
1Department of Physics, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun Road, Houston, Texas 77204, USA.
Abstract:
We use all-atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to study hydrophobic interactions of hexane in nanosized water droplets where the hydrogen bonding network of water molecules is disrupted at the surface. As a result of the competition between the energetics of a hexane molecule and the distribution of water molecules that lost the ability to form hydrogen bonds at the boundary, all-trans-hexane molecules are statistically favored at the surface of a nanosized water droplet and such a statistical trend increases as the size of a nano water droplet decreases. Changes in the radial distribution and the orientation of water molecules surrounding hexane in nanosized water droplets over bulk water are indicative of the finite-size effects on the structural distribution of a short, topologically complex hydrocarbon chain.
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