Anomalously soft dynamics of water in a nanotube: a revelation of nanoscale confinement.
Quasi-one-dimensional water encapsulated inside single-walled carbon nanotubes, here referred to as nanotube water, was studied by neutron scattering. The results reveal an anomalously soft dynamics characterized by pliable hydrogen bonds, anharmonic intermolecular potentials, and large-amplitude motions in nanotube water. Molecular dynamics simulations consistently describe the observed phenomena and propose the structure of nanotube water, which comprises a square-ice sheet wrapped into a cylinder inside the carbon nanotube and interior molecules in a chainlike configuration.
Intense Pulsed Neutron Source Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
Alexander I
AI
Kolesnikov
Jean-Marc
JM
Zanotti
Chun-Keung
CK
Loong
Pappannan
P
Thiyagarajan
Alexander P
AP
Moravsky
Raouf O
RO
Loutfy
Christian J
CJ
Burnham
D003198:Computer Simulation; D008956:Models, Chemical; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D009502:Neutrons; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D014867:Water