Investigation of water dielectric properties in confined flat plates using molecular dynamics simulations

Dielectric properties of water confined in nano porous regions and channels have been found to be extremely low compared to the bulk values. Various studies have attributed this anomalous water property to decrease in dielectric properties in direction orthogonal to channel or confined direction while the other degrees of freedom preserving the bulk properties. Some studies have also found interesting interfacial effects in water confined under flat plate region as a major factor contributing to this interesting behavior. Here, we perform molecular dynamics simulation using Simple Point Charge Extended (SPC/E) and Flexible (SPC/Fw) water models under various degrees of confinement in a flat plate region to study the dielectric property dependence of the degree of confinement. In this study, we vary the confinement from a few nanometers to a micron and observe an interesting relationship between the degree of confinement, temperature, and dielectric properties. Our work will greatly enhance theoretical and empirical studies to understand and study various water related phenomenon in confined regions.