Liquid-Liquid Flow at Nanoscale: Slip and Hydrodynamic Boundary Conditions

L Hilaire and B Siboulet and S Charton and JF Dufrêche, LANGMUIR, 39, 2260-2273 (2023).

DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.2c02856

Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) sim-ulations have been performed to describe the flow of a fluid nanolayer confined by another fluid. The results show that the behavior of liquids can still be described by the Navier-Stokes equation at the nanoscale, i.e., when only few molecular layers are involved. NEMD furthermore gives additional knowledge on flow. Indeed, while a very small slip is evidenced for a solid-liquid interface as, e.g., in lubrication, the slip lengths are significantly larger at the liquid-liquid interface, as encountered, e.g., in droplet coalescence. The slip lengths of the two fluids are linked. The increase in hydrodynamic slip for liquid-liquid interfaces is attributed to the enhancement of fluid diffusion, which reduces friction.

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