Adsorption phenomena in the transport of a colloidal particle through a nanochannel containing a partially wetting fluid

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics to explore how colloidal particles move in nanochannels with partially wetting fluids, revealing novel adsorption behaviors and validating continuum predictions at small scales.

Contribution

It uncovers new adsorption phenomena of colloidal particles in nanochannels with partial wetting and compares molecular dynamics results with continuum models.

Findings

Adsorption causes particles to meander and stick or slide along the wall.

Good agreement with continuum predictions at short times despite thermal fluctuations.

Adsorption behavior depends on fluid-solid wetting properties.

Abstract

Using molecular dynamics simulations, we study the motion of a closely fitting nanometer-size solid sphere in a fluid-filled cylindrical nanochannel at low Reynolds numbers and for a wide range of fluid-solid interactions corresponding to different wetting situations. For fluids that are not completely wetting we observe an interesting and novel adsorption phenomenon, in which the solid sphere, that was initially moving along the center of the tube, meanders across the channel and suddenly adsorbes onto the wall. Thereafter, the adsorbed sphere either {\it sticks} to the wall and remains motionless on average, or separates slightly from the tube wall and then moves parallel to the tube axis, while rotating on average. On the other hand, at short times, i.e. when the solid particle moves with its center close to the middle of the tube, we find surprisingly good agreement between our results and the predictions of the continuum approach in spite of the large thermal fluctuations present in our simulations.