Patil, S.Matei, G.Oral, A.Hoffmann, P. M.2016-02-082016-02-0820060743-7463http://hdl.handle.net/11693/23759There has been a long-standing debate about the physical state and possible phase transformations of confined liquids. In this report, we show that a model-confined liquid can behave both as a Newtonian liquid with very little change in its dynamics and as a pseudosolid, depending solely on the rate of approach of the confining surfaces. Thus, the confined liquid does not exhibit any confinement-induced solidification in thermodynamic equilibrium. Instead, solidification is induced kinetically when the two confining surfaces are approached with a minimum critical rate. This critical rate is surprisingly slow (on the order of 6 Å/s), explaining the frequent observation of confinement-induced solidification.EnglishConfined liquidsNanoconfined liquidPseudosolidsThermodynamic equilibriumFluid dynamicsNanostructured materialsNewtonian liquidsPhase transitionsSolidificationThermodynamic stabilityConfined flowArticle10.1021/la060504w