Anisotropic dynamics of dipolar liquids in narrow slit pores

We report molecular dynamics simulation results for Stockmayer fluids confined to narrow slitlike pores with structureless, nonconducting walls. The translational and rotational dynamics of the dipolar particles have been investigated by calculating autocorrelation functions, diffusion coefficients, and relaxation times for various pore widths (five or less particle diameters) and directions parallel and perpendicular to the walls. The dynamic properties of the confined systems are compared to bulk properties, where corresponding bulk and pore states at the same temperature and chemical potential are determined in parallel grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations. We find that the dynamic behavior inside the pore depends on the distance from the walls and can be strongly anisotropic even in globally isotropic systems. This concerns especially the particles in the surface layers close to the walls, where the single particle and collective dipolar relaxation resemble that of true two-dimensional dipolar fluids with different in-plane and out-of-plane relaxations. On the other hand, bulklike relaxation is observed in the pore center of sufficiently wide pores. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.