Author name: Andrew G. Stack

Virtual Probes of Mineral–Water Interfaces: The More Flops, the Better!

New approaches are allowing computer simulations to be compared quantitatively with experimental results, and they are also raising new questions about reactivity at mineral–water interfaces. Molecular simulations not only help us to understand experimental observations, they can also be used to test hypotheses about the properties of geochemical systems. These new approaches include rigorous calibration of simulation models against thermodynamic properties and atomic structure. They also encompass rare event theory methods that allow simulation of slow, complex mineral surface reactions. Here, we give an overview of how these techniques have been applied to simulate mineral–water interface structure, growth/ dissolution mechanisms, and cluster formation.

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Nanoscale Structure and Dynamics in Geochemical Systems

Neutron scattering is a powerful tool to elucidate the structure and dynamics of systems that are important to geochemists, including ion association in complex aqueous solutions, solvent-exchange reactions at mineral–water interfaces, and reaction and transport of fluids in nanoporous materials. This article focusses on three techniques: neutron diffraction, which can reveal the atomic-level structure of aqueous solutions and solids; quasi-elastic neutron scattering, which measures the diffusional dynamics at mineral–water interfaces; and small-angle neutron scattering, which can show how properties of nanoporous systems change during gas, liquid, and solute imbibition and reaction. The usefulness and applicability of the experimental results are extended by rigorous comparison to computational simulations.

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