Molecular Dynamics Investigation of a Superhydrophobic Silica-Varnish Coating for Marine Metal Protection in Underwater

  • Unique Paper ID: 207745
  • Volume: 13
  • Issue: 3
  • PageNo: 2570-2573
  • Abstract:
  • Superhydrophobic coatings offer a low-cost route to corrosion and biofouling resistance for metal structures exposed to seawater, but their molecular-scale wetting mechanism is not fully characterized. This paper reports a molecular dynamics (MD) investigation of a silica nanoparticle-varnish coating (CSCV-6.4), building on the coral-reef-like superhydrophobic coating reported by Cai et al. [1]. The authors construct an atomistic model of the coating - octadecyltrimethoxysilane-functionalized silica grafted to an acrylic-acid-based varnish matrix - using Avogadro, the LigParGen OPLS-AA parameter service, Packmol, a custom force-field assembly pipeline, and simulate it in LAMMPS together with explicit water. In parallel, a simplified generic bare-metal reference model is constructed to demonstrate the contrast coated versus uncoated wetting behavior. Reference results extracted from the [1] are reproduced and tabulated for comparison. The bare-metal reference simulation shows continuously increasing water mean-squared displacement, consistent with hydrophilic spreading, while the full CSCV-6.4 assembly was successfully relaxed to a stable multi-component configuration. Full production-stage diffusion analysis of the coated system is identified as ongoing work.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{207745,
        author = {Yokesh C and Joy clitus A and Sakthivel Murugan S},
        title = {Molecular Dynamics Investigation of a Superhydrophobic Silica-Varnish Coating for Marine Metal Protection in Underwater},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {13},
        number = {3},
        pages = {2570-2573},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=207745},
        abstract = {Superhydrophobic coatings offer a low-cost route to corrosion and biofouling resistance for metal structures exposed to seawater, but their molecular-scale wetting mechanism is not fully characterized. This paper reports a molecular dynamics (MD) investigation of a silica nanoparticle-varnish coating (CSCV-6.4), building on the coral-reef-like superhydrophobic coating reported by Cai et al. [1]. The authors construct an atomistic model of the coating - octadecyltrimethoxysilane-functionalized silica grafted to an acrylic-acid-based varnish matrix - using Avogadro, the LigParGen OPLS-AA parameter service, Packmol, a custom force-field assembly pipeline, and simulate it in LAMMPS together with explicit water. In parallel, a simplified generic bare-metal reference model is constructed to demonstrate the contrast coated versus uncoated wetting behavior. Reference results extracted from the [1] are reproduced and tabulated for comparison. The bare-metal reference simulation shows continuously increasing water mean-squared displacement, consistent with hydrophilic spreading, while the full CSCV-6.4 assembly was successfully relaxed to a stable multi-component configuration. Full production-stage diffusion analysis of the coated system is identified as ongoing work.},
        keywords = {superhydrophobic coating; molecular dynamics; LAMMPS; marine corrosion protection; silica nanoparticles; wettability; contact angle},
        month = {August},
        }

Cite This Article

C, Y., & A, J. C., & S, S. M. (2026). Molecular Dynamics Investigation of a Superhydrophobic Silica-Varnish Coating for Marine Metal Protection in Underwater. International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology (IJIRT), 13(3), 2570–2573.

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