title: Communication: Length scale dependent oil-water energy fluctuations.
abstract: Interfacial fluctuations in the cohesive (van der Waals) interaction energy of spherical oil-drops with water provide evidence of a length scale dependent transition from linear to non-linear response behavior. For sub-nanometer oil-drop sizes, energy fluctuations are found to be independent of the van der Waals coupling strength, while nanometer (and larger) size oil drops experience highly non-linear energy fluctuations. The latter behavior is linked to enhanced hydrophobic density fluctuations and the emergence of entropic contributions to oil-water cohesive interaction free energies.
authors: Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.
authors: Robin
authors: R
authors: Underwood
authors: Dor
authors: D
authors: Ben-Amotz
mesh_terms: D019277:Entropy; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D009821:Oils / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D009821:Oils; D014867:Water