Water and Ion Dynamics in Confined Media: A Multi-Scale Study of the Clay/Water Interface

This review details a large panel of experimental studies (Inelastic Neutron Scattering, Quasi-Elastic Neutron Scattering, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance relaxometry, Pulsed-Gradient Spin-Echo attenuation, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging, macroscopic diffusion experiments) used recently to probe, over a large distribution of characteristic times (from pico-second up to days), the dynamical properties of water molecules and neutralizing cations diffusing within clay/water interfacial media. The purpose of this review is not to describe these various experimental methods in detail but, rather, to investigate the specific dynamical information obtained by each of them concerning these clay/water interfacial media. In addition, this review also illustrates the various numerical methods (quantum Density Functional Theory, classical Molecular Dynamics, Brownian Dynamics, macroscopic differential equations) used to interpret these various experimental data by analyzing the corresponding multi-scale dynamical processes. The purpose of this multi-scale study is to perform a bottom-up analysis of the dynamical properties of confined ions and water molecules, by using complementary experimental and numerical studies covering a broad range of diffusion times (between pico-seconds up to days) and corresponding diffusion lengths (between Angstroms and centimeters). In the context of such a bottom-up approach, the numerical modeling of the dynamical properties of the diffusing probes is based on experimental or numerical investigations performed on a smaller scale, thus avoiding the use of empirical or fitted parameters.