Interfaces govern the structure of angstrom-scale confined water solutions

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Conflicts of Interest

Identified Weaknesses

Rating Explanation

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Paper Summary

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Trapped Water Acts Like It's Just Near a Surface... Unless *Really* Trapped

Water confined in nanoscale spaces is structurally different from bulk water, but for larger confinements (>8 Angstroms), it's mainly the surfaces influencing the structure, not the confinement itself. Only at extremely small confinements (<8 Angstroms, about two water molecule layers thick) does the confinement start dictating the water's behavior, weakening its hydrogen bonds and forcing it to lie flat.

Possible Conflicts of Interest

None identified

Identified Weaknesses

Confinement environment

While capillary condensation allows to create two-dimensional nanoscale confinement, it is limited to aqueous electrolyte solutions. The role of ions in the observed structural change was not clear.

HD-SFG detection limit

HD-SFG primarily probes the first layer of water at each interface and is insensitive to the central water layer in 3L nanoconfined water. Although this is not a major limitation for this particular work, it may pose a challenge in interpreting the structure of confined water when probing the sub-nm confinement, where the SFG signals may become less pronounced as water is strongly confined.

Rating Explanation

This study provides valuable insights into the structure of nanoconfined water using surface-specific vibrational spectroscopy. It systematically disentangled the interfacial and nanoconfinement effects, offering a comprehensive understanding of water behavior under different levels of confinement. The combination of experimental work and theoretical simulations strengthened the conclusions. However, the specific confinement environment created by capillary condensation may pose a limitation.

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