Water vapor clustering in the field of Na+ cation inside a nanopore with hydrophilic walls. 1. Spatial organization

Resumo

Computer simulation has been employed to study the structure of a hydration shell of a Na⁺ ion under the conditions of a planar nanopore with structureless hydrophilic walls at 298 K. Intermolecular interactions have been described in terms of a detailed model calibrated with respect to experimental data on the free energy and enthalpy of the initial reactions of vapor molecule attachment to the ion. In the field of hydrophilic walls, the hydration shell is disrupted into an enveloping part and that spread over the surface of the walls. At the final stage of hydration, states with asymmetric distribution of molecules on opposite walls survive and the phenomenon of ion displacement out of its shell is stably reproduced. The orientational molecular order in the system strongly depends on the degree of wall hydrophilicity. The hydration shell of a sodium ion is less stable with respect to disturbances generated by the field of hydrophilic walls than the shell of a chlorine ion is.