Melting-Freezing Transition of Monolayer Water Confined by Phosphorene Plates.

The two-dimensional material phosphorene has become a focus of the scientific community recently. On the basis of molecular dynamics simulations, we utilize phosphorene as a model material to study the behavior of water molecules confined by two phosphorene plates with nonflat surfaces. As the relative position of the two plates changes, the water molecules first stay in a melting process at 230 K and then exhibit a freezing process. The disparate variations of local confinements induced by the mismatch of the two plates are the key for understanding this extraordinary behavior of water. Our results imply that such nonflat surfaces could be an important factor for understanding or controlling the dynamics of water. The phenomena reported here may enrich the knowledge of water and inspire more applications of similar materials.