Proceedings

EPJ E Topical review - Structure and dynamics of nanoconfined water and aqueous solutions

Water, regarded as the matrix of life, is an ubiquitous and peculiar liquid that exhibits a plethora of anomalous properties, both in its stable and metastable bulk states, which fostered a lot of experimental and theoretical studies. Less explored is the field of water and aqueous systems confined in nanoporous materials that, in addition to its fundamental interest, are present in a number of practical situations, including biological and separation processes and energy generation and storage, among others. These facts have triggered a vast amount of research that, so far, has not been conveniently reviewed.

Thus, the purpose of this new review published in EPJE, is to report and discuss recent progress, achieved through experimental, theoretical and computational studies, on the structural, thermodynamics, and dynamics properties of water and aqueous solutions confined at the nanoscale in synthetic and biological media. The review deals with the following subjects: i) the pore size dependence of the melting and glass transition and nanosegregation effects; ii) the effect of confinement on water dissociation and reactivity; iii) the interplay between thermodynamics and dynamics for supercooled water within hydrophilic nanopores; iv) the diffusionand superflow properties of water through small nanopores; v) the transport properties of confined ionic aqueous solutions of practical relevance; vi) the structure and diffusion of nanoconfined aqueous solutions of ionic liquids; vii) the interplay between local hydrophobicity and non-covalent interactions in model nanoconfined aqueous systems; viii) the coupling between different physical interactions, chemical reactions and transport properties in aqueous solutions inside polymer-coated nanopores, in biological contexts.

This was our first experience of publishing with EPJ Web of Conferences. We contacted the publisher in the middle of September, just one month prior to the Conference, but everything went through smoothly. We have had published MNPS Proceedings with different publishers in the past, and would like to tell that the EPJ Web of Conferences team was probably the best, very quick, helpful and interactive. Typically, we were getting responses from EPJ Web of Conferences team within less than an hour and have had help at every production stage.
We are very thankful to Solange Guenot, Web of Conferences Publishing Editor, and Isabelle Houlbert, Web of Conferences Production Editor, for their support. These ladies are top-level professionals, who made a great contribution to the success of this issue. We are fully satisfied with the publication of the Conference Proceedings and are looking forward to further cooperation. The publication was very fast, easy and of high quality. My colleagues and I strongly recommend EPJ Web of Conferences to anyone, who is interested in quick high-quality publication of conference proceedings.

On behalf of the Organizing and Program Committees and Editorial Team of MNPS-2019, Dr. Alexey B. Nadykto, Moscow State Technological University “STANKIN”, Moscow, Russia. EPJ Web of Conferences vol. 224 (2019)

ISSN: 2100-014X (Electronic Edition)

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