Temperature inversion of the thermal polarization of water
- 30 December 2015
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review E
- Vol. 92 (6), 060103
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.92.060103
Abstract
Temperature gradients polarize water, a nonequilibrium effect that may result in significant electrostatic fields for strong thermal gradients. Using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, we show that the thermal polarization features a significant dependence with temperature that ultimately leads to an inversion phenomenon, whereby the polarization field reverses its sign at a specific temperature. Temperature inversion effects have been reported before in the Soret coefficient of aqueous solutions, where the solution changes from thermophobic to thermophilic at specific temperatures. We show that a similar inversion behavior is observed in pure water. Microscopically, the inversion is the result of a balance of dipolar and quadrupolar contributions and the strong temperature dependence of the quadrupolar contribution, which is determined by the thermal expansion of the liquid.Keywords
Funding Information
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/J003859/1)
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