Structure, dynamics and solvation in heterogeneous environments

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Branka Ladanyi of Colorado State University is funded by an award from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry program to study, using theory and computer simulation, interfacial and nanoconfined fluids. These topics are closely related, given that interfaces play an important role in influencing the properties of confined fluids. Ladanyi and her research group study are gaining a better understanding of the molecular-scale properties of water near extended hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. They are also exploring the mesoscopic properties of liquid/liquid interfaces in order to characterize capillary waves and their effects on the interfacial structure as well as to model and analyze experimental data obtained in X-ray reflectivity experiments. Additionally, they study fluids confined in nanoscale dimensions. Such fluids possess properties that differ considerably from the corresponding bulk phases due to reduced dimensionality and interfacial effects.Understanding the properties of liquid interfaces and nanoconfined fluids impacts many areas. Hydrophobic liquids and surfactants occur in biological systems such as proteins and membranes. Understanding how the properties of confined liquids differ from the bulk is important for numerous technological applications, including catalysis, nanoparticle synthesis, lubrication, chromatography, oil recovery, cellular dynamics and microfluidics.