Attractive surface force in the presence of dissolved gas: a molecular approach

Despite widespread evidence of the influence of dissolved air on hydrophobic interaction, the mechanisms of observed effects are still unknown. Although some experiments indicate that adsorbed gases can modify the structure of water next to hydrophobic surfaces, gas effects on measured forces have been observed only at large surface separations. Gas-specific depletion of water at a hydrophobic surface has been detected but was not reproduced in subsequent measurements. We use computer simulations to study short-ranged hydrophobic attraction in the absence and presence of dissolved gas and monitor gas adsorption at molecular resolution inaccessible in experiments. Although we observe a significant accumulation of dissolved gases at hydrophobic surfaces, even in supersaturated gas solutions surface concentrations remain too low to induce any significant change in the local structure of water and short-range surface forces. We present direct calculations of the hydrophobic force between model hydrocarbon plates at separations between 1.5 and 4 nm. Although stronger, the calculated solvation force has a similar decay rate as deduced from recent surface force apparatus measurements at a somewhat lower contact angle. Within the statistical uncertainty, short-range attraction is not affected by the presence of dissolved nitrogen, even in supersaturated solution with a gas fugacity as high as 30 atm. Comparisons of the adsorption behavior of N2, O2, CO2, and Ar reveal similar features in contrast to the peculiar suppression of water depletion reported for an Ar solution in a neutron reflectivity experiment. Our calculations reveal a notable difference between pathways to the capillary evaporation of pure water and gas-phase nucleation in confined supersaturated gas solutions.     

Computer simulation of adhesion between hydrophilic and hydrophobic self-assembled monolayers in water

The grand canonical Monte Carlo technique and atomistic force fields are used to calculate the force-distance relations and free energies of adhesion between carboxyl and methyl terminated alkanethiolate self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) in water. Both symmetric and asymmetric confinements are considered, as formed by like and unlike SAMs, respectively. As the confinement is increased, water confined by the hydrophobic methyl terminated SAMs experiences capillary evaporation. As a consequence, the adhesion energy is determined by the direct interaction between bare SAMs. In the asymmetric system, an incomplete capillary evaporation is observed, with the number of water molecules dropped by more than an order of magnitude. The remaining water molecules are all adsorbed on the hydrophilic SAM, while the hydrophobic SAM is separated from the rest of the system by a thin vapor layer. The calculated free energies of adhesion are in acceptable agreement with experiment.     

Temperature dependence of the evaporation coefficient of water in air and nitrogen under atmospheric pressure: study in water droplets

The evaporation coefficients of water in air and nitrogen were found as a function of temperature by studying the evaporation of a pure water droplet. The droplet was levitated in an electrodynamic trap placed in a climatic chamber maintaining atmospheric pressure. Droplet radius evolution and evaporation dynamics were studied with high precision by analyzing the angle-resolved light scattering Mie interference patterns. A model of quasi-stationary droplet evolution accounting for the kinetic effects near the droplet surface was applied. In particular, the effect of thermal effusion (a short-range analogue of thermal diffusion) was discussed and accounted for. The evaporation coefficient alpha in air and in nitrogen were found to be equal. The alpha was found to decrease from approximately 0.18 to approximately 0.13 for the temperature range from 273.1 to 293.1 K and follow the trend given by the Arrhenius formula. The agreement with condensation coefficient values obtained with an essentially different method by Li et al. [Li, Y.; Davidovits, P.; Shi, Q.; Jayne, J.; Kolb, C.; Worsnop, D. J. Phys. Chem. A. 2001, 105, 10627] was found to be excellent. The comparison of experimental conditions used in both methods revealed no dependence of the evaporation/condensation coefficient on the droplet charge nor the ambient gas pressure within the experimental parameters range. The average value of the thermal accommodation coefficient over the same temperature range was found to be 1 +/- 0.05.     

Sample introduction in high speed capillary gas chromatography; input band width and detection limits

The speed of analysis in capillary gas chromatography can be substantially increased by reduction of the column inner diameter. However, special demands are then posed upon instrumental design. In particular, the sampling system is highly critical because it has to be capable of delivering extremely small injection band widths which must be compatible with the column inside diameter. This study focuses on the evaluation of two potentially suitable sample introduction systems with respect to input band width and detection limits and their compatibility with small bore (≦ 100 μm) columns in capillary gas chromatography. One of them allows liquid on-column injection, based on liquid splitting, of only a few nl onto small bore (≦ 100 ?m) fused silica columns. For gases, input band widths as low as 1 ms are obtained with this system. The other one is part of a miniaturized gas chromatograph with extremely low dead volume interfaces and detector volumes. It allows input band widths for gases of a few ms. Without any preconcentration ppm concentrations are measured in gaseous samples with a 80 ?m thick film capillary column. It will be shown that a further reduction of the minimum detectable amount and analysis time is possible with this equipment.     

Behavior of a thermotropic nematic liquid crystal confined to controlled pore glasses as studied by 129Xe NMR spectroscopy

The behavior of nematic liquid crystal (LC) Merck Phase 4 confined to controlled pore glass (CPG) materials was investigated using 129Xe nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of xenon gas dissolved in the LC. The average pore diameters of the materials varied from 81 to 2917 A, and the measurements were carried out within a wide temperature range (approximately 185-370 K). The spectra contain lots of information about the effect of confinement on the phase of the LC. The theoretical model of shielding of noble gases dissolved in liquid crystals on the basis of pairwise additivity approximation was applied to the analysis of the spectra. When pore diameter is small, smaller than approximately 150 A, xenon experiences on average an isotropic environment inside the pore, and no nematic-isotropic phase transition is observed. When the size is larger than approximately 150 A, nematic phase is observed, and the LC molecules are oriented along pore axis. The orientational order parameter of the LC, S, increases with increasing pore size. In the largest pores, the orientation of the molecules deviates from the pore axis direction to magnetic field direction, which implies that the size of the pores (approximately 3000 A) is close to magnetic coherence length. The decrease of magnetic coherence length with increasing temperature is clearly seen from the spectra. When the sample is cooled rapidly by immersing it in liquid nitrogen, xenon atoms do not squeeze out from the solid, as they do during gradual freezing, but they are occluded inside the solid lattice, and their chemical shift is very sensitive to crystal structure. This makes it possible to study the effect of confinement on the solid phases. According to the measured 129Xe NMR spectra, possibly three different solid phases are observed from bulk liquid crystal in the used temperature region. The same is also seen from the samples containing larger pores (pore size larger than approximately 500 A), and the solid-solid phase-transition temperatures are the same. However, no first-order solid-solid phase transitions are observed from the smaller pores. Melting point depression, that is, the depression of solid-nematic transition temperature observed from the pores as compared with that in bulk LC, is seen to be very sensitive to the pore size, and it can be used for the determination of pore size of an unknown material.     

The solubility of ethane, propane, and carbon dioxide in aqueous solutions of sodium cumene sulfonate

Measurements have been made to determine the solubilities of ethane, C2H6, propane, C3H8, and carbon dioxide, CO2, in aqueous solutions of sodium cumene sulfonate (NaCS) at 25 degrees C. The solubilities measured for each gas satisfy Henry's law at all concentrations of NaCS. The solubilities of C2H6 and C3H8 exhibit quite similar behavior with respect to added NaCS. The solubilities of these two gases are very low in pure water and are found to be nearly independent of NaCS concentration over a concentration range of 0-0.4 mol NaCS/kg H2O. At intermediate concentrations of NaCS, the solubilities of C2H6 and C3H8 exhibit a gradual increase with added NaCS concentrations ranging from 0.4 to 2.0 mol NaCS/kg H2O. At NaCS concentrations greater than 2.0 mol NaCS/kg H2O, the solubilities of these two gases increase with added NaCS in an approximately linear manner, with the solubility of C3H8 increasing more rapidly than that for C2H6 (by a factor of approximately 2.5). CO2 is much more soluble in pure water than the hydrocarbon gases and exhibits markedly different behavior with respect to added NaCS. The solubility of CO2 decreases with added NaCS over a concentration range of 0-0.9 mol NaCS/kg H2O, passes through a minimum at a concentration of approximately 1.0 mol NaCS/kg H2O, and then increases with added NaCS at higher NaCS concentrations in a manner similar to that observed with C2H6 and C3H8. The trends in solubility observed for these three gases dissolved in aqueous solutions of NaCS resemble those found previously with aqueous solutions of ordinary surfactants. The solubility data measured for these three gases can be interpreted surprisingly well in terms of the mass-action model for micellization, in which salting-out effects due to monomer salt ions suppress gas solubility at low NaCS concentrations and gas solubilization by small micelles of NaCS acts to enhance gas solubility at the higher NaCS concentrations.     

二维气相色谱法分析天然气水合物区沉积物间隙水中示踪气体的浓度

利用微流路控制技术中心切割装置(Deans Switch)、两根色谱柱(PoraPLOT Q和Molsieve 5A)和3个检测器(脉冲氦离子化检测器、火焰光度检测器、热导检测器),建立了一种二维气相色谱分析系统,实现了海洋中多种示踪气体组分(氢气、甲烷、二氧化碳、硫化氢)的同时分析和精确测定。氢气、甲烷、二氧化碳、硫化氢的含量分别在2～1030、0.6～501、120～10500和0.2～49.1 μmol/mol范围内的校正曲线线性关系良好,检出限分别为0.51、0.17、82和0.08 μmol/mol,10次重复测定含量的相对标准偏差均小于10%。通过对南海天然气水合物区沉积物间隙水顶空气的测定,表明该方法方便、灵敏、可靠,易于实现海上现场测定;与以往采用多种分析方法分别测定示踪气体相比,大大节省了样品量。该方法适用于海洋天然气水合物、海底热液等资源的调查和海洋溶解态气体的研究等。     

Direct Volumetric Measurement of Gas Oversolubility in Nanoliquids: Beyond Henry’s Law

The properties of condensed matter are strongly affected by confinement and size effects at the nanoscale. Herein, we measured by microvolumetry the increased solubility of H₂ in a series of solvents (CHCl₃, CCl₄, n‐hexane, ethanol, and water) when confined in the cavities of mesoporous solids (γ‐alumina, silica, and MCM‐41). Gas/liquid solubilities are enhanced by up to 15 times over the corresponding bulk values for nanoliquid sizes smaller than 15 nm as long as gas/liquid interfaces are mesoconfined in a porous network. Although Henry’s law constant apparently no longer applies under these confinement, the concentration of dissolved H₂ still increases linearly with increasing pressure in the range 1–5 bar. We discuss the role and main implications of surface excess concentrations at mesoconfined gas/liquid interfaces in enhancing gas solubility.     

改变相比/顶空气相色谱法测定变压器油中溶解气体的分配常数

采用改变相比/顶空气相色谱法测定了甲烷、乙炔、乙烯、乙烷和丙烷在变压器油中的分配常数。顶空瓶中的气体样品经石英毛细管送到气相色谱仪的六通进样阀样品管中,然后进行分离和定量。采用标准曲线法定量,通过测定5个不同相比时轻烃组分的顶空浓度,计算顶空浓度倒数与相比之间的线性回归方程,测定了20 ℃和50 ℃时烃类气体在变压器油中溶解气体的分配常数。除甲烷外,计算所得的分配常数与文献值基本吻合,油中溶解气体浓度的实验值与实际值之间的相对误差小于4.14%,表明用此方法可以测定不同温度下变压器油中溶解气体的分     

Capillary condensation of a binary mixture in slit-like pores

We investigate the capillary condensation of two model fluid mixtures in slit-like pores, which exhibit different demixing properties in the bulk phase. The interactions between adsorbate particles are modeled by using Lennard-Jones (12,6) potentials and the adsorbing potentials are of the Lennard-Jones (9,3) type. The calculations are performed for different pore widths and at different concentrations of the bulk gas, by means of density functional theory. We evaluate the capillary phase diagrams and discuss their dependence on the parameters of the model. Our calculations indicate that a binary mixture confined to a slit-like pore may exhibit rich phase behavior.     

Gas-vapor bubble nucleation--a unified approach

In a solution which is saturated with gas near the superheat limit, one might expect a bubble formed from both dissolved gas and vapor molecules to appear. The integration of the surface-energy concepts, that are postulated on completely different physical bases for gas and vapor bubble formation is a major issue. In this paper, we reformulate gas and vapor bubble nucleation by a scaling transformation, which turns the surface energy for the bubble formation from both dissolved gases and vapor molecules to the translational energy of a molecule, (3/2)kBT. With this unified approach, one could estimate the dissolved gas effect on the superheat limit of the liquid. The driving force and the molecular volume are important quantities for determining the number of gas and vapor molecules composed of a critical cluster. This approach, of course, can predict pure gas bubble formation, as well as pure vapor bubble formation, as limiting cases. Also, this approach makes it possible to find that the possible occurrence of gas bubble nucleation by dissolved gases prevents measuring the theoretical superheat limit of water at atmospheric pressure, 300 degrees C.     

Nature of adsorption and desorption branches in cylindrical pores

To examine the nature of the adsorption and desorption branches in hysteretic adsorption isotherms of gases on mesoporous materials, we measured the temperature dependence of the adsorption and desorption isotherms of argon, oxygen, and carbon dioxide onto MCM-41 with a pore diameter of 4.4 nm. The results clearly show that in the open-ended cylindrical pores of MCM-41, capillary condensation rather than evaporation takes place near a thermodynamical equilibrium transition, as opposed to the general statement that capillary evaporation can occur via a meniscus formed at the pore mouth, and, thus, takes place at equilibrium.     

Self-assembly of linear triblock copolymers under cylindrical nanopore confinements

The self-assembly of linear ABC triblock copolymers under cylindrical confinements is investigated in two-dimensional space using the real-space self-consistent field theory. The effects of confinement degrees and preferential strengths on the triblock copolymer phase behaviors with special polymer parameters are first considered. On one hand, different confinement degrees cause different phase behaviors in nanopores with the neutral surfaces. Moreover, the strongly preferential surface fields can surpass the confinement degrees and volume fractions in determing the confined phase behaviors. On the other hand, in contrast, confined morphologies are more sensitive to the variations in the A-preferential surface field strength. Subsequently, the incompatibility degrees between different blocks are systematically varied under cylindrical nanopore confinements. Under cylindrical nanopore confinements, the morphologies are very sensitive to the variations in the incompatibility degrees. Meanwhile, nanopore confinements can affect order-disorder and order-order transition points in the bulk. The corresponding free, internal, and entropic energies as well as the order parameters are also quantificationally examined to deeply investigate the confined phase mechanisms, and a number of morphological transitions are confirmed to be of first-order. These findings may guide the design of novel nanostructures based on triblock copolymers by introducing confinements.     

Measurements of dissolved nonmethane hydrocarbons in sea water

Summary An automated stripping technique for the measurement of dissolved hydrocarbons in sea water is presented together with some results obtained during a ship cruise from Europe to Brazil. The sea water concentrations of NMHC were determined in a three step process: degassing, preconcentration, and gas chromatographic analysis. In a stripping chamber the dissolved gases were purged from sea water with helium. The stripped hydrocarbons were cryogenically concentrated, and after thermal desorption they were injected into the gas chromatograph. The light fraction (C₂–C₄) was separated on a packed and the heavy fraction (C₅–C₁₀) on a capillary column. All valves were microprocessor controlled in order to achieve an automated process. For the C₂–C₄ hydrocarbons the stripping efficiencies exceeded 90% except for acetylene (80%), the lower limit of detection was 1 to 4.5 pmol hydrocarbon per liter of sea water and the accuracy of the method was better than 25%, depending on the individual hydrocarbons. Typical oceanic concentrations were in the 10 and 100 pmol/l range. Alkenes were generally more abundant than the corresponding alkanes and within the homologous series the concentrations decreased with increasing number of carbon atoms.     

Water between plates in the presence of an electric field in an open system

Molecular dynamics simulations of water at 298 K and 1 atm of pressure are used to investigate the electric-field dependence of the density and polarization density of water between two graphite-like plates of different sizes (9.8 x 9.2 and 17.7 x 17.2 A) in an open system for plate separations of 8.0, 9.5, and 16.4 A. The interactions with water were tuned to "hard-wall-like" and "normal" C-O hydrophobic potentials. Water between the larger plates at 16.4 A separation is layered but is metastable with respect to capillary evaporation at zero field (Bratko, D.; Curtis, R. A.; Blanch, H. W.; Prausnitz, J. M. J. Chem. Phys. 2001, 115, 3873). Applying a field decreases the density of the water between the plates, in apparent contradiction to thermodynamic and integral equation theories of bulk fluid electrostriction that ignore surface effects, rendering them inapplicable to finite-sized films of water between hydrophobic plates. This suggests that the free energy barrier for evaporation is lowered by the applied field. Water, between "hard-wall-like" plates at narrower separations of 9.5 A and less, shows a spontaneous but incomplete evaporation at zero field within the time scale of our simulation. Evaporation is further enhanced by an electric field. No such evaporation occurs, on these time scales, for the smaller plates with the "hard-wall-like" potential at a separation of 8.0 A at zero field, signaling a crossover in behavior as the plate dimension decreases, but the water density still diminishes with increasing field strength. These observations could have implications for the behavior of thin films of water between surfaces in real physical and biological systems.     

Reaction of OH + NO2: high pressure experiments and falloff analysis

High pressure experiments on the OH + NO2 reaction are presented for 3 different temperatures. At 300 K, experiments in He (p = 2-500 bar) as well as in Ar (p = 2-4 bar) were performed. The rate constants obtained in Ar agree well with values which have been reported earlier by our group (Forster, R.; Frost, M.; Fulle, D.; Hamann, H. F.; Hippler, H.; Schlepegrell, A.; Troe, J. J. Chem. Phys. 1995, 103, 2949. Fulle, D.; Hamann, H. F.; Hippler, H.; Troe, J. J. Chem. Phys. 1998, 108, 5391). In contrast, the rate coefficients determined in He were found to be 15-25% lower than the values given in our earlier publications. Additionally, results for He as bath gas at elevated temperatures (T = 400 K, p = 3-150 bar; T = 600 K, p = 3-150 bar) are reported. The results obtained at elevated pressures are found to be in good agreement with existing literature data. The observed falloff behavior is analyzed in terms of the Troe formalism taking into account two reaction channels: one yielding HNO3 and one yielding HOONO. It is found that the extracted parameters are in agreement with rate constants for vibrational relaxation and isotopic scrambling as well as with experimentally determined branching ratios. Based on our analysis we determine falloff parameters to calculate the rate constant for atmospheric conditions.     

Deformation and breakup of micro- and nanoparticle stabilized droplets in microfluidic extensional flows

Using a microfluidic flow-focusing device, monodisperse water droplets in oil were generated and their interface populated by either 1 μm or 500 nm amine modified silica particles suspended in the water phase. The deformation and breakup of these Pickering droplets were studied in both pure extensional flow and combined extensional and shear flow at various capillary numbers using a microfluidic hyperbolic contraction. The shear resulted from droplet confinement and increased with droplet size and position along the hyperbolic contraction. Droplet deformation was found to increase with increasing confinement and capillary number. At low confinements and low capillary numbers, the droplet deformation followed the predictions of theory. For fully confined droplets, where the interface was populated by 1 μm silica particles, the droplet deformation increased precipitously and two tails were observed to form at the rear of the droplet. These tails were similar to those seen for surfactant covered droplets. At a critical capillary number, daughter droplets were observed to stream from these tails. Due to the elasticity of the particle-laden interface, these drops did not return to a spherical shape, but were observed to buckle. Although increases in droplet deformation were observed, no tail streaming occurred for the 500 nm silica particle covered droplets over the range of capillary numbers studied.     

Influence of cylindrical submicrometer confinement on the static and dynamic properties in nonyloxycyanobiphenyl (9OCB)

Broadband dielectric spectroscopy (10(2)-1.9 x 10(9) Hz) and specific heat measurements have been performed on nonyloxycyanobiphenyl (9OCB) in the isotropic (I), nematic (N), and smectic A (SmA) phases confined to 200 nm diameter parallel cylindrical pores of Anopore membranes. Untreated and HTBA-treated membranes have been found to obtain axial and radial confinements, respectively. However, structural or configurational transitions in untreated membranes have been reported to exist in the SmA-mesophase of 9OCB. Both confinements clearly affect the N-I and SmA-N phase transitions. In the axial confinement, the analysis of the specific heat and static dielectric permittivity data leads to a second order SmA-N phase transition, which is known to be weakly first order for bulk 9OCB. Dynamic dielectric measurements have accounted for the different molecular motions in both confinements. On both mesophases, either N or SmA, the relaxation processes in axial configuration are faster than in the bulk. However, in radial confinement, they are either equal or slower than in the bulk. Additionally, there are no differences in the energy barrier hindering the molecular motions between the axial and radial confinements and even in relation to bulk. Likewise, dielectric results suggest that the extension inside the pores of the surface pinned molecular layer (proved to be temperature-dependent) persists at high enough temperature as a residual-thin layer adjacent to the pore wall.     

Solubility of 1-Butene in Water and in a Medium for Cultivation of a Bacterial Strain

Solubility measurements of 1-butene in water, from 20 to 50°C and at atmospheric pressure, were carried out using a Ben-Naim/Baer-type apparatus. The experimental results have a precision of about ±0.3%. Using accurate thermodynamic relations, the Ostwald coefficients at the experimental conditions and at infinite dilution, the mole fractions of the dissolved gas at the gas partial pressure of 101.325 kPa and the Henry coefficients at the water vapor pressure were calculated. The mole fraction of dissolved gas were fitted to the Clarke, Glew, and Weiss equation and thermodynamic quantities, standard molar Gibbs energy, entropy, and enthalpy changes, for the process of transferring the 1-butene molecules from the gaseous to the water phase, were computed. Moreover, solubility measurements of 1-butene in an aqueous medium for the cultivation of Xanthobacter Py2 in the same temperature range were also performed at atmospheric pressure. These solubility data are approximately 2.6% lower than those observed in pure water.     

Trace identification of plant substances by combining gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and direct deposition gas chromatography-Fourier transform infrared spectrometry

The advantages of combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and direct deposition gas chromatography-Fourier transform infrared spectrometry at the same level of sensitivity are demonstrated using an apolar capillary column. This technique was applied to allelochemicals present in minute concentrations. The identification of volatiles in green leaves and an alkaloid is described.