Effect of nanoporous confinement on the phase behaviour of aqueous solutions

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The effects of nanoporous confinement on the fundamental properties of condensed matter are numerous. A general understanding of the phase behaviour, dynamic and transport properties of nanoconfined fluids has been acquired for the last two decades from abundant studies that have addressed different aspects such as the capillary condensation, freezing/melting, glassy dynamics, molecular diffusion and liquid imbibition. However, it is notorious that classical descriptions of pure (unary) confined fluids fail to capture entirely the upper level of complexity attained with multicomponent systems. For example, it was recently shown that classical thermodynamics, combining Gibbs-Thomson and Raoult’s laws fail to explain the experimental phase behaviour of binary nanoconfined solutions. In this context, the ultimate aim of the project is to elucidate and model the different phenomena that dictate the phase behaviour (vapor/liquid/glass/crystal) of aqueous solutions in nanoporous materials. This requires addressing important aspects, covering structure and dynamics that have played secondary role or that were simply not relevant for previous physical studies of unary confined liquids. Our project will benefit from carefully designed advanced porousmaterials that will be used as model systems to generate and control the in/homogeneous character of the confined phases. This will allow studying the effects of polydispersed porosity as obtained with hierarchical porous materials, or spatially modulated surface interactions as obtained with porous materials alternating hydrophobic/hydrophilic regions.Organic molecules, molecular ions and inorganic salts will be used as a panel of solutes with controllable size, polarizability and hydrophilic character.