Water Confinement in Hydrophobic Nanopores. Pressure-Induced Wetting and Drying

Wetting and drying of hydrophobic pores with diameters lower than 0.2 μm by aqueous solutions at different hydrostatic pressures is investigated by measuring the ionic conductance variation through the nanopores. The critical pressure for water intrusion into the nanopores increases with lowering th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ACS nano 2010-09, Vol.4 (9), p.5069-5075
Main Authors: Smirnov, Sergei, Vlassiouk, Ivan, Takmakov, Pavel, Rios, Fabian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Electric Impedance
Membranes, Artificial
Nanopores
Pressure
Surface Properties
Water - analysis
Water - chemistry
Wettability
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Summary:Wetting and drying of hydrophobic pores with diameters lower than 0.2 μm by aqueous solutions at different hydrostatic pressures is investigated by measuring the ionic conductance variation through the nanopores. The critical pressure for water intrusion into the nanopores increases with lowering the pore diameter and the surface tension of the hydrophobic modification, in agreement with the Laplace equation. Nevertheless, restoring the pressure to the atmospheric one does not result in spontaneous pore dewetting unless bubbles are left inside the pores. Such bubbles can appear at the regions of narrowing cross section and/or varying quality of the hydrophobic modification and thus can be engineered to control water expulsion.
ISSN:1936-0851
1936-086X
DOI:10.1021/nn101080k