Saturated sodium chloride solution under an external static electric field: A molecular dynamics study
Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: The behavior of saturated aqueous NaCl solutions under a constant external electric field ( E ) was studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Our dynamic MD simulations indicated that the irreversible nucleation process towards crystallization is accelerated by a moderate E but retarded or even prohibited under a stronger E , which can be understood by the competition between self-diffusion and drift motion. The former increases with E , thereby accelerating the nucleation process, whereas the latter pulls oppositely charged ions apart under a stronger E , thereby decelerating nucleation. Additionally, our steady-state MD simulations indicated that a first-order phase transition occurs in saturated solutions at a certain threshold E c . The magnitude of E c increases with concentration because larger clusters form more easily when the solution is more concentrated and require a stronger E to dissociate.
Source: Chinese Physics B
Authors: Gan Ren, Yan-Ting Wang
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2253363607