title: Water cluster growth in hydrophobic solid nanospaces.
abstract: The growth mechanism of water clusters in carbon nanopores is clearly elucidated by in situ small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) studies and grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations at 293-313 K. Water molecules are isolated from each other in hydrophobic nanopores below relative pressures (P/P(0)) of 0.5. Water molecules associate with each other to form clusters of about 0.6 nm in size at P/P(0)=0.6, accompanied by a remarkable aggregation of these clusters. The complete filling of carbon nanopores finishes at about P/P(0)=0.8. The correlation length analysis of SAXS profiles leads to the proposal of a growth mechanism for these water clusters and the presence of the critical cluster size of 0.6 nm leads to extremely stable clusters of water molecules in hydrophobic nanopores. Once a cluster of the critical size is formed in hydrophobic nanopores, the predominant water adsorption begins to fill carbon nanopores.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomonori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohba
authors.forename: Hirofumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kanoh
authors.forename: Katsumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kaneko
mesh_terms: D036103:Nanotechnology; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D014867:Water