Electric field-induced gas dissolving in aqueous solutions

Xie Zhang, Li Zheng, Jingyuan Li, Jianlong Kou, Jun Yao, Jintu Fan

    Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

    17 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Gas dissolution or accumulation regulating in an aqueous environment is important but difficult in various fields. Here, we performed all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to study the dissolution/accumulation of gas molecules in aqueous solutions. It was found that the distribution of gas molecules at the solid-water interface is regulated by the direction of the external electric field. Gas molecules attach and accumulate to the interface with an electric field parallel to the interface, while the gas molecules depart and dissolve into the aqueous solutions with a vertical electric field. The above phenomena can be attributed to the redistribution of water molecules as a result of the change of hydrogen bonds of water molecules at the interface as affected by the electric field. This finding reveals a new mechanism of regulating gas accumulation and dissolution in aqueous solutions and can have tremendous applications in the synthesis of drugs, the design of microfluidic device, and the extraction of natural gas.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number024705
    JournalJournal of Chemical Physics
    Volume154
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 14 Jan 2021

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Physics and Astronomy(all)
    • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

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