Compressing liquid nanofoam systems: liquid infiltration or nanopore deformation?

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Fluid Dynamics

Background:

• Understanding liquid infiltration into porous materials is crucial for material characterization and designing energy protection systems.
• The deformation behavior of solid pores during liquid invasion has remained unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the competition between liquid infiltration and cell wall buckling in liquid nanofoam (LN) systems under compression.
• To establish a quantitative relationship between nanopore deformation and liquid invasion.

Main Methods:

• Numerical simulations to study critical buckling stress and infiltration pressure.
• Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to analyze nanopore deformation and cell wall-liquid interactions.
• Experimental validation using pressure-induced compression of a silica-based LN system.

Main Results:

• Liquid infiltration is independent of the axial buckling stress of the cell wall.
• Nanopores collapse radially when radial collapse pressure is lower than liquid infiltration pressure, hindering invasion.
• Theoretical, MD, and experimental results show good agreement.

Conclusions:

• A competition mechanism between liquid infiltration and cell wall buckling dictates nanopore behavior.
• Radial collapse pressure is the key factor determining liquid invasion into nanopores.
• Findings provide insights into designing advanced porous materials for liquid-solid interactions.