Release of Oxygen from a Nano-sized Water Droplet Observed using Molecular Dynamics

Abstract

Dissolved oxygen is necessary for many biological processes as well as many industrial practices. Dissolved oxygen released from water in dissolved air flotation (DAF) systems can be have many different applications. However, DAF systems are very costly to operate. To develop more efficient DAF systems, a deeper understanding of the process of oxygen being released from water is required. In this study, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to simulate 100 oxygen molecules surrounded by 31002 water molecules at temperatures ranging from 0℃ to 100℃. Simulations were carried out for 10 ns, during which, in most cases, all the oxygen molecules were released from the water droplet. With MD simulations, visualization of the molecules escaping the water droplet was possible, which aided the understanding of the interactions between molecules at the nano-scale. The results showed that as the oxygen molecules moved near the edge of the water droplet that the oxygen molecules hesitated before escaping the water droplet or returned to the interior of the water droplet. This was because of the attractive forces between the water and oxygen molecules. Moreover, after most of the oxygen molecules were released from the droplet, some were found to return to the droplet's edge or even the interior of the droplet. It was also confirmed that oxygen molecules were released at a faster rate at higher temperatures.