Transport properties and structure of fluids in hydrophobic/hydrophilic nanochannels

Abstract

When downsizing towards the nanoscale, system dimensions have been found to affect channel flows mainly because of the presence of the walls that interact strongly with fluid particles. Parameters which are not taken into account at the classical theory continuum theory at the macroscale, should be taken into account at the nano or even micro-scale where the surface to volume ratio increases significantly. Such property is the wall/fluid interaction which determines the wetting (hydrophilic behavior) or not (hydrophobic behavior) of a surface. We first investigate the effect of wall/fluid interaction on fluid atom distribution near the wall through the radial distribution function and, next, we calculate the three most important fluid transport properties, i.e., the diffusion coefficient, shear viscosity and thermal conductivity. Transport properties seem to be affected significantly in the channel region adjacent to the wall.