Fluids at an electrostatically active surface: Optimum in interfacial friction and electrohydrodynamic drag

TL;DR

This study uses molecular simulations to explore how electrostatic screening and charge dynamics at metallic surfaces influence interfacial fluid behavior, revealing optimal friction conditions and electrohydrodynamic drag effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel atom-scale simulation approach with Virtual Thomas-Fermi fluids to analyze charge relaxation and electrohydrodynamic interactions at metal-fluid interfaces.

Findings

Friction between fluid and solid varies non-monotonically with metallicity.

Maximum interfacial friction occurs when charge dynamics of solid and fluid overlap.

Electrohydrodynamic drag results from momentum transfer via electrostatic interactions.

Abstract

While fluids near a solid surface are at the core of applications in energy storage/conversion, electrochemistry/electrowetting and adsorption/catalysis, their nanoscale behavior remains only partially deciphered. Beyond conventional effects (e.g. adsorption/reaction, interfacial transport, phase transition shifts), recent experimental and theoretical studies on metallic surfaces have unraveled exotic peculiarities such as complex electrostatic screening, unexpected wetting transition, and interfacial quantum friction. These novel features require developing and embarking new tools to tackle the coupling between charge relaxation in the metal and molecular behavior in the vicinal fluid. Here, using the concept of Virtual Thomas-Fermi fluids, we employ a molecular simulation approach to investigate interfacial transport of fluid molecules and metal charge carriers at their interface--including the underlying electrostatically-driven dynamic friction and the coupling between charge current/hydrodynamic flow (the so-called electrohydrodynamic drag). While conventional numerical techniques consider either insulating materials or metallic materials described as polarizable, non-conducting media, our atom-scale strategy provides an effective yet realistic description of the solid excitation spectrum--including charge relaxation modes and conductivity. By applying this approach to water near metallic surfaces of various electrostatic screening lengths, we unveil a non-monotonous dependence of the fluid/solid friction on the metallicity with a maximum occurring as the charge dynamic structure factors of the solid and fluid strongly overlap. Moreover, we report a direct observation of the electrohydrodynamic drag which arises from the momentum transfer between the solid and liquid through dynamic electrostatic interactions and the underlying interfacial friction.