All our simulations are performed using the open-source molecular dynamics code LAMMPS 48 , and visualized in OVITO . Our systems consist of either pure water or water with an embedded slab of gold. Interaction potential between these components, an important input to all classical MD simulations, is delineated in Section II A. There are two kinds of simulations performed in this work: (a) Contact angle calculation (b) Non equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) straining; detailed description of these are presented later in this Section. A constant time step size is 2fs is used across all our simulations.