8th Liquid Matter Conference September 6-10, 2011 Wien, Austria ...

Tue 611:23-14:00P9.23Soft matter in hard confinement: how molecular fluidsarrange in and huddle through mesoporous solidsSimon Gruener, 1 Anke Henschel, 1 Sebastian Mörz, 1 Andre Kusmin, 2 AndriyKityk, 3 Klaus Knorr, 1 Dieter Richter, 2 and Patrick Huber 11 Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany2 Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany3 Czestochowa University of Technology, Czestochowa, PolandThe properties of molecular assemblies confined in pores a few nanometers across play a dominantrole in phenomena ranging from clay swelling, frost heave, oil recovery and catalysis, to colloidalstability, protein folding and transport in cells and tissues. Therefore the advent of tailorable nanoandmesoporous membranes, most prominently arrays of carbon nanotube bundles, of silicon,silica and alumina channels, has led to a growing interest in the equilibrium and non-equilibriumbehavior of solids and liquids confined in such environments. In the first part of my talk I willpresent x-ray diffraction measurements on the crystallization and glass formation of molecular assembliesin monolithic porous silicon as a function of the complexity of their basic building blocks(n-alkanes and 1-alcohols) [1, 2]. The second part of my talk addresses dynamical phenomena inmesopores ranging from self-diffusion and liquid flow to pore translocation, as probed by neutronspin-echo spectroscopy, radiography and gravimetric imbibition experiments. Depending on themolecular species investigated (water, hydrocarbons, liquid crystals and proteins) a remarkablerobustness of macroscopic concepts, however, also significant deviations from the bulk behaviorare observable [3-7].[1] A. Henschel, T. Hofmann, P. Huber, and K. Knorr, Phys. Rev. E 75, 021607 (2007).[2] A. Henschel, P. Huber, and K. Knorr, Phys. Rev. E 77, 042602 (2008).[3] S. Gruener and P. Huber, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 174501 (2009).[4] S. Gruener, T. Hofmann, D. Wallacher, A. Kityk, and P. Huber, Phys. Rev. E 79, 067301(2009).[5] A. Kusmin, S. Gruener, A. Henschel, O. Holderer, J. Allgaier, D. Richter, and P. Huber, J.Phys. Chem. Lett. 1, 3116 (2010).[6] A. Kusmin, S. Gruener, A. Henschel, N. De Souza, J. Allgaier, D. Richter, and P. Huber,Macromolecules 43, 8162 (2010).[7] S. Gruener and P. Huber, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 23, 184109 (2011).23