These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Water adsorption on kaolinite surfaces containing trenches.
    Author: Croteau T, Bertram AK, Patey GN.
    Journal: J Phys Chem A; 2010 Feb 11; 114(5):2171-8. PubMed ID: 20085249.
    Abstract:
    Recent laboratory studies of water adsorption on kaolinite at 296 K, and at relative humidity (RH) values relevant for the atmosphere, have reported coverages ranging up to tens of monolayers. In contrast, recent simulations have suggested that atomistically smooth kaolinite surfaces uptake only monolayers (some slightly overgrown) at similar RH values. In an effort to possibly explain the laboratory data, we have performed water adsorption calculations on kaolinite surfaces containing trenchlike structures using the grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation method at 298 K. The results obtained show that the granularity of the surfaces can play a major role in the adsorption of multiple layers of water. For all trenches considered, multilayers of water were observed over a large range of RH. The narrowest trench investigated remained filled with water even in the very low RH regime (<or=0.0003%). Increasing the trench width resulted in partial or complete trench filling depending on the RH value, with large water mounds growing on the step edges. This strong affinity for water is explained by very attractive water-lattice interactions inside the trenches, especially near the walls. Our calculations suggest that water adsorption in trenches, and possibly in other similar defects, can offer an explanation of the experimental results.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]