A surface tension study of liquid threads

According to symmetry of liquid threads, definitions of surface tension in axial direction and angular direction are given. The formulas of surface tension in axial direction γ_z and surface tension in angular direction γ_θ are derived. A scheme to calculate Δγ = γ_z − γ_θ is designed. We investigate seven different systems (the numbers of molecules N are 1600, 2240, 2880,3360,4000,4800 and 5280) by molecular dynamics simulations. For liquid threads, Δγ increases with the decreasing radius of dividing surface. It shows that there exists surface tension anisotropy for liquid threads. The results obtained by molecular dynamics simulations support that surface tension is dependent on the dividing surface curvature.     

A molecular dynamics study of uranyl hydration

Molecular dynamics calculations were carried out in order to investigate the hydration structure of uranyl in aqueous solution. The CF1 model of flexible water molecules is used. This model allows one to investigate a hydrolysis reaction for water molecules in the first uranyl hydration shell. Charge redistribution effects on hydrolysis products are also taken into account. We found five ligands in uranyl hydration shell, which is of bipyramidal pentacoordinated structure. The charge redistribution effects resulted in ligands of four water molecules and one hydroxyl, which was found closer to uranium than the other ligands.     

A molecular dynamics study on iridium

In this study, molecular dynamics simulations are performed by using a modified form of Morse potential function in the framework of the Embedded Atom Method (EAM). Temperature-and pressure-dependent behaviours of bulk modulus, second-order elastic constants (SOEC), and the linear-thermal expansion coefficient is calculated and compared with the available experimental data. The melting temperature is estimated from 3 different plots. The obtained results are in agreement with the available experimental findings for iridium.      

液膜气泡法测洗涤溶液的表面张力系数

利用自制装置采用液膜气泡法测定了洗涤溶液的表面张力系数．由医用注射器充气形成球形液泡，通过与之连通的微压计测出液泡内外的压强差，运用杨氏-普拉斯方程计算出洗涤溶液的表面张力系数.     

Investigation of surface properties of liquid transition metals: Surface tension and surface entropy

In the present study, surface properties namely surface tension and surface entropy of liquid transition metals have been reported. The surface entropy of liquid Fe, Co and Ni metals has been investigated using the expression derived by Gosh et al. [R.C. Gosh, A.Z. Ziauddin Ahmed, G.M. Bhuiyan, Eur. Phys. J. B 56 (2007) 177]. To describe interionic interaction the pseudopotential approach has been used and radial distribution functions have been determined from the solution of Ornstein-Zernike integral equation. The calculated values of surface tension and surface entropy agree well with experiment. The present study shows that the expression derived by Gosh et al. leads to a good estimation for the surface entropy.     

Surface effect on the coalescence of Pt clusters: A molecular dynamics study

We have performed molecular dynamics simulations for Pt_N + Pt_N → Pt_2N (N = 147, 324, 500,792), to investigate the effect of size and substrate on coalescence temperature. Our simulations show that platinum nanoclusters coalesce at the temperatures lower than the cluster melting point. The difference between coalescence and melting temperatures decreases with the increase in cluster size and presence of substrate. These thermal behaviors affect catalytical properties of nanoclusters and the substrate, as an environment, has major effect on activity of metal nanoclusters.     

The surface tension of liquid Cu-Fe-Sb alloys

The results of study on the influence of temperature and iron and antimony on the surface tension of liquid ternary Cu-Fe-Sb systems are presented. The measurements were carried out with the sessile drop method, in a broad range of the alloy additions concentration (Fe and Sb). It was demonstrated that the surface tension varies as a linear function of temperature and concentration of iron. It was also demonstrated that antimony, in examined alloys, shows the properties characteristic of a surface-active substance, significantly reducing the surface tension value. The changes of the surface tensions as a function of concentration of antimony were described with the Szyszkowski's equation. Composition of surface layer, enriched with an antimony, was determined basing on the model, which used data regarding properties of binary systems. The surface tension values of Cu-Fe-Sb systems was also computed from model and compared with experimental data. A good agreement was obtained.     

Void effect on mechanical properties of copper nanosheets under biaxial tension by molecular dynamics method

The relationship between void size/location and mechanical behavior under biaxial loading of copper nanosheets containing voids are investigated by molecular dynamics method. The void location and the void radius on the model are discussed in the paper. The main reason of break is discovered by the congruent relationship between the shear stress and its dislocations. Dislocations are nucleated at the corner of system and approached to the center of void with increased deformation. Here, a higher stress is required to fail the voided sheets when smaller voids are utilized. The void radius influences the time of destruction. The larger the void radius is, the lower the shear stress and the earlier the model breaks. The void location impacts the dislocation distribution.     

A variable charge molecular dynamics study of the initial stage of nickel oxidation

The oxidation of nickel single crystals is investigated by using variable charge molecular dynamics. The simulations are performed on three nickel low-index surfaces ((1 0 0), (1 1 0) and (1 1 1)) at temperatures between 300 K and 950 K. The results show that the shape of the oxidation kinetics is independent of the crystallographic orientation and the temperature under the present conditions. The oxide thin film grows according to an island growth mode, this initial stage of oxidation can be divided in three steps: (i) the dissociative chemisorption step (ii) the oxide island nucleation and (iii) the lateral growth of the island. The first step is slowdown/speedup by the surface orientation and temperature. Finally, the simulations show the onset of an oxide layer.     

Influence of line defects on relaxation properties of graphene: A molecular dynamics study

The relaxation properties of single layer graphene sheets containing line defects were investigated using molecular dynamics simulation with AIROBE bond-order interatomic potential. The dynamic evolution of graphene sheets during relaxation condition was analyzed. The simulation results show that the single layer graphene sheets are not perfectly flat in an ideal state, and the graphene sheet shows a significant corrugations at the verge of sheet. The graphene sheet is bent with the line defects at the end of the sheet, and the extent of this bend also increases with the increase of the defect number. Furthemore, the graphene sheet transforms into a paraboloid with the line defects at the middle of the sheet.     

Effects of surface concentration on the porphine monolayers: Molecular simulations at the nanoscale water-gas interface

The effect of surface concentration on the structure and stability of porphine (PH₂) monolayers at the water-gas interface was studied by using molecular dynamics simulation. Five monolayer systems having different surface concentrations were investigated in order to cover a full range of the experimental π-A isotherm. The simulation results show that increment of a number of the PH₂ molecules not only affects the significantly decreasing water density at the interface but also the monolayer surface tensions. The calculated surface tensions of the five systems indicate that the monolayer phase transfer corresponding to gaseous, expanded, condensed, and collapsed phases are observed. The hydrogen bonding between water and the PH₂ molecules at the interface plays an important role on the monolayer film formation, especially at the lower surface concentrations. The PH₂ orientations for all surface concentrations, except the highest one, are favored to be the β-structure as observed in the copper porphyrazine (CuPz) monolayer.     

Molecular dynamics study on surface structure and surface energy of rutile TiO2 (1 1 0)

The formula for surface energy was modified in accordance with the slab model of molecular dynamics (MDs) simulations, and MD simulations were performed to investigate the relaxed structure and surface energy of perfect and pit rutile TiO₂(1 1 0). Simulation results indicate that the slab with a surface more than four layers away from the fixed layer expresses well the surface characteristics of rutile TiO₂ (1 1 0) surface; and the surface energy of perfect rutile TiO₂ (1 1 0) surface converges to 1.801±0.001 J m⁻². The study on perfect and pit slab models proves the effectiveness of the modified formula for surface energy. Moreover, the surface energy of pit surface is higher than that of perfect surface and exhibits an upper-concave parabolic increase and a step-like increase with increasing the number of units deleted along [0 0 1] and [1 1 0], respectively. Therefore, in order to obtain a higher surface energy, the direction along which atoms are cut out should be chosen in accordance with the pit sizes: [] direction for a small pit size and [0 0 1] direction for a big pit size; or alternatively the odd units of atoms along [1 1 0] direction are removed.     

Size dependent surface energy of nanoplates: Molecular dynamics and nanoscale continuum theory correlations

A nanoscale gradient continuum theory along with molecular dynamics simulations are employed to investigate the size-dependent surface energy of nanoplates. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that upon nanoplate thickness reduction, the redistribution of surface energy density along thickness direction causes the decrease of the surface energy of nanoplate free surfaces. Via introducing a calibration benchmark, the length scale model parameter of the gradient continuum theory is methodically determined. The calibrated continuum theory is shown to well predict the size-dependent surface energy and the associated redistribution of surface energy density within nanoplates.     

A molecular dynamics study of structural transition of Ti during the rapid quenching process

The structural transitions of Ti during two different quenching processes (Q1: 7.5×10¹¹ K/s, Q2: 2.0×10¹⁴ K/s) were studied using molecular dynamics simulations. The calculated pair-correlation function agrees acceptably with available experimental data. This work gives the structural properties, including the variations with temperature of pair-correlation function, bond-angle distribution function, bond pairs and Voronoi indices, in both rapid quenching processes. Our results indicated that the liquid Ti transformed to hcp phase at the temperature about of 400 K under the quenching condition Q1 while the liquid Ti was frozen into a glass state at the temperature about of 800 K under the quenching condition Q2.     

A molecular dynamics study of fuel droplet evaporation in sub- and supercritical conditions

Evaporation processes of a fuel droplet under sub- and supercritical ambient conditions have been studied using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Suspended n-dodecane droplets of various initial diameters evaporating into a nitrogen environment are considered. Both ambient pressure and temperature are varied from sub- to supercritical values, crossing the critical condition of the chosen fuel. Temporal variation in the droplet diameter is obtained and the droplet lifetime is recorded. The time at which supercritical transition happens is determined by calculating the temperature and concentration distributions of the system and comparing with the critical mixing point of the n-dodecane/nitrogen binary system. The dependence of evaporation characteristics on ambient conditions and droplet size is quantified. It is found that the droplet lifetime decreases with increasing ambient pressure and/or temperature. Supercritical transition time decreases with increasing ambient pressure and temperature as well. The droplet heat-up time as well as subcritical to supercritical transition time increases linearly with the initial droplet size d₀, while the droplet lifetime increases linearly with ${\mathrm{d}}_0^2$. A regime diagram is obtained, which indicates the subcritical and supercritical regions as a function of ambient temperature and pressure as well as the initial droplet size.     

Structure-mechanical approach to surface tension of solids

Some problems of applying the Lippmann equation to adsorption studies on solid electrodes are shortly reviewed. A novel nonthermodynamic approach to consider the role of elastic and plastic deformation of electrode surfaces during adsorption is proposed. The extremely thin electrode surface layers affected electrically and mechanically by adsorbate are supposed to be free of dislocations because of volume discrepancy. The nearest structure-mechanical analogs of such layers are the whisker crystals whose side surface could have one- and two-dimensional defects, but have no active dislocations. Like whiskers, surface metal layers should possess a high ultimate strength close to the theoretical one and a purely elastic deformation. Affected only by adsorbate, the surface electrode layer should be considered as absolutely elastic body, whose plastic deformation is impossible, i.e. the Lippmann equation and other equations containing terms of plastic deformation cannot be used in thermodynamics of the solid metal surface.     

不同润湿性石英表面吸附页岩油的分子动力学模拟

根据吉木萨尔凹陷芦草沟组储层特征,利用分子动力学方法研究了不同润湿性石英狭缝表面吸附页岩油的特征.用甲基和羟基按照-CH₃:-OH=100:0、 75:25、 50:50、 25:75、 0:100修饰石英表面以构造不同润湿性的表面,并构建10 nm裂缝模型,以研究其对C₁₅H₃₂页岩油的吸附特性.研究结果表明,通过调节修饰官能团的比例,成功构造了润湿角为122.0°、 116.5°、 92.5°、 82.6°、 65.4°的吸附模型.由于水分子与石英表面间的相互作用能变化剧烈,水分子在修饰的石英表面的吸附是导致润湿角不断改变的主要原因.(C₁₅H₃₂在甲基改性石英表面的第一吸附层峰值是羟基改性的石英表面的1.37倍,说明润湿性会导致吸附特征发生明显改变.)通过对游离态页岩油含量的计算发现,随着羟基改性程度的增加,游离态页岩油质量占比从68%逐渐增长到83.7%,说明表面的润湿性改造有利于页岩油的解吸进而提高页岩油开发能力.     

Model calculation of the surface tension of liquid Ga-Bi alloy

A convenient model, based on some assumptions, for calculating the composition and temperature dependence of the surface tension of binary liquid alloys is reported. The theoretical calculations of the surface tension of gallium-rich-bismuth alloys are presented. The calculated results are compared with the reported experimental data. A relatively good agreement with experimental behavior of the composition dependence of the surface tension was found, but a disagreement was observed with experimental temperature behavior of the surface tension of these alloys. The calculations were conducted in the temperature range from almost 320 K to about 800 K. The surface tension was calculated from eutectic composition (x_Bi = 0.0022) to x_Bi = 0.1, and worked out by linear equations. The model calculation and analysis indicate a first order surface phase transition in this system, which is in accord with experimental findings. For this system, γ decreases linearly with increasing temperature at fixed Bi mole fraction x_Bi, and thus, suggesting a positive surface excess entropy. It is also found that the surface tension isotherms show the linear dependence on the concentration, in the logarithm scale of x_Bi, in the very narrow concentration range.     

The study of melting stage of bulk silicon using molecular dynamics simulation

The melting stage of bulk silicon is studied using classical molecular dynamics simulation. The mean square displacement and diffusion coefficient are focused allowing statistics analysis of the dynamics displacement of each atom. Three stages of the melting processes, premelting, accelerated melting and relaxation, are resolved. The structural development is evaluated through the stages by Lindemann index, non-Gaussian parameter and the second neighbor coordination number. The studies emphasize the observation that premelting occurs in the ideal crystal on melting.