Thermodynamics and Kinetics of Water In Hydrophobic Confinement

The behavior of water confined by, or close to, hydrophobic surfaces is of relevance to protein folding, detergency, and the design of self-cleaning surfaces. The interplay between bulk and surface energetics gives rise to a rich variety of phenomena, including surface-induced evaporation transitions, as well as the formation of low-dimensional ice phases. The talk will first address the thermodynamics of nano-scale hydrophobic confinement, with emphasis on the relationship between characteristic length scales and liquid stability. The kinetics of hydrophobically-induced evaporation will also be discussed, and numerical calculations using path sampling methods will be presented.