News30 June 2026
What really controls water chemistry in nanoscale spaces
Researchers from Cambridge, Harvard, Caltech, and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research published findings in Science Advances showing that nanoconfined water's apparent chemical reactivity is driven by pressure and surface chemistry rather than confinement itself, using machine-learning simulations of water trapped between graphene and hexagonal boron nitride sheets. The work establishes that graphene's chemically inert surface leaves water reactivity unchanged, while reactive surfaces like hBN can actively enhance water dissociation—a design principle relevant to graphene and 2D carbon material applications in membranes, fuel cells, and electrochemical systems.