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Thermally-nucleated self-assembly of water and alcohol into stable structures at hydrophobic interfaces

Voïtchovsky, K.; Giofrè, D.; Segura, J.J.; Stellacci, F.; Ceriotti, M.

Thermally-nucleated self-assembly of water and alcohol into stable structures at hydrophobic interfaces Thumbnail


Authors

D. Giofrè

J.J. Segura

F. Stellacci

M. Ceriotti



Abstract

At the interface with solids, the mobility of liquid molecules tends to be reduced compared with bulk, often resulting in increased local order due to interactions with the surface of the solid. At room temperature, liquids such as water and methanol can form solvation structures, but the molecules remain highly mobile, thus preventing the formation of long-lived supramolecular assemblies. Here we show that mixtures of water with methanol can form a novel type of interfaces with hydrophobic solids. Combining in-situ atomic force microscopy and multiscale molecular dynamics simulations, we identify solid-like two-dimensional interfacial structures that nucleate thermally, and are held together by an extended network of hydrogen bonds. On graphite, nucleation occurs above B35 C, resulting in robust, multilayered nanoscopic patterns. Our findings could have an impact on many fields where water-alcohol mixtures play an important role such as fuel cells, chemical synthesis, self-assembly, catalysis and surface treatments.

Citation

Voïtchovsky, K., Giofrè, D., Segura, J., Stellacci, F., & Ceriotti, M. (2016). Thermally-nucleated self-assembly of water and alcohol into stable structures at hydrophobic interfaces. Nature Communications, 7, Article 13064. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13064

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 31, 2016
Online Publication Date Oct 7, 2016
Publication Date Oct 7, 2016
Deposit Date Sep 28, 2016
Publicly Available Date Sep 28, 2016
Journal Nature Communications
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 7
Article Number 13064
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13064

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/






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