Structure, dynamics and solvation in heterogeneous environments

科罗拉多州立大学的Branka Ladanyi得到了理论和计算化学项目的资助，利用理论和计算机模拟研究界面和纳米限制流体。 这些主题是密切相关的，因为界面在影响受限流体的性质方面起着重要作用。 Ladanyi和她的研究小组 研究正在更好地理解水在扩展的疏水和亲水表面附近的分子尺度特性。 他们还在探索液/液界面的介观性质，以表征毛细波及其对界面结构的影响，并对X射线反射率实验中获得的实验数据进行建模和分析。 此外，他们还研究局限于纳米尺度的流体。 由于降维和界面效应，这种流体具有与相应的体相显著不同的性质。了解液体界面和纳米约束流体的性质会影响许多领域。疏水液体和表面活性剂存在于生物系统中，如蛋白质和膜。 了解受限液体的性质如何不同于本体对于许多技术应用非常重要，包括催化，纳米颗粒合成，润滑，色谱，石油回收，细胞动力学和微流体。

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.