Superpermittivity of nanoconfined water.

Nowadays, it is well established that the physical properties of confined liquids strongly differ from those in bulk phase. While dynamical and structural properties were strongly explored, dielectric properties are poorly studied despite their importance in the understanding and the modelling of molecular mechanism in a number of nano-applications such as nanofluidics, nanofiltration, and nanomedicine. Among them, the dielectric permittivity is probably one of the most important.

Tunable dielectric constant of water at the nanoscale.

Using molecular dynamics simulations, the influence of the surface charge density of a nanotube on the static dielectric permittivity ε of confined water was reported. Whereas the dielectric anisotropy between the radial and axial directions of water confined in hydrophilic and hydrophobic membranes and the increase in axial dielectric permittivity with respect to the bulk value have previously been described, we found that an increase in the surface charge density leads to a drastic decrease in ε into the axial direction. The decrease in ε is accompanied by a strong slowdown in the rotational dynamics of water molecules.

Unravelling the anomalous dielectric permittivity of nanoconfined electrolyte solutions.

The dielectric properties of sodium chloride solutions confined in a hydrophilic nanocavity were investigated by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Unlike what is observed in the bulk phase, three dielectric regimes were evidenced, namely an anomalous increase in the dielectric permittivity at low concentrations (with respect to confined pure water), a dielectric plateau at intermediate concentrations and finally a bulk-like behavior for salt concentrations higher than a critical value. It was shown that this peculiar behavior results from the competition between dielectric saturation due to the electric field generated by ions (which tends to lower the dielectric permittivity) and the ion-induced perturbation of pre-oriented water molecules inside the nanocavity which gain some rotational degrees of freedom (entropic contribution) leading to an increase in dipolar fluctuations responsible for the increase in the dielectric permittivity.

Water confinement in nanoporous silica materials.

The influence of the surface polarity of cylindrical silica nanopores and the presence of Na(+) ions as compensating charges on the structure and dynamics of confined water has been investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. A comparison between three different matrixes has been included: a protonated nanopore (PP, with SiOH groups), a deprotonated material (DP, with negatively charged surface groups), and a compensated-charge framework (CC, with sodium cations compensating the negative surface charge). The structure of water inside the different pores shows significant differences in terms of layer organization and hydrogen bonding network.

Concentration dependence of the dielectric permittivity, structure, and dynamics of aqueous NaCl solutions: comparison between the Drude oscillator and electronic continuum models.

We report molecular dynamics simulations of aqueous sodium chloride solutions at T = 298 K and p = 1 bar in order to investigate the salt concentration dependence of the dielectric permittivity, the structure, and the dynamical properties. Different models were applied up to 7 m salt concentration: the Drude oscillator model with a negative Drude particle (SWM4-NDP), the TIP4P/2005-Reif nonpolarizable model, and an electronic continuum polarizable model (MDEC). Both SWM4-NDP and MDEC polarizable models were able to quantitatively reproduce the concentration dependence of the dielectric permittivity of NaCl aqueous solutions.