Properties of aqueous NaCl solutions in external electromagnetic fields

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the effects of an external electromagnetic field on aqueous NaCl electrolyte solutions at a temperature of 298 K. The simulations assume that the electromagnetic waves propagate in the x-axis direction with a frequency of 50, 100 or 200 GHz. The intensity of the electromagnetic field is assumed to vary in the range 0.1–0.3 V/Å. The simulations are conducted for two different NaCl solution concentrations, namely 1 m and 5 m (molality). The results indicate that as the intensity of the electromagnetic field is increased, the re-orientation of the water molecules becomes more pronounced and the diffusion coefficient of the aqueous NaCl solution increases. It is also shown that in both the low-concentration and high-concentration solutions, the diffusion coefficients of water molecules and ions increase as the frequency and intensity of the electromagnetic field increase.