Strongly confined fluids: Diverging time scales and slowing down of equilibration

Thermodynamic properties of quasi-one-dimensional fluids

We calculate thermodynamic and structural quantities of a fluid of hard spheres of diameter σ in a quasi-one-dimensional pore with accessible pore width W smaller than σ by applying a perturbative method worked out earlier for a confined fluid in a slit pore [Franosch et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 240601 (2012)]. In a first step, we prove that the thermodynamic and a certain class of structural quantities of the hard-sphere fluid in the pore can be obtained from a purely one-dimensional fluid of rods of length σ with a central hard core of size σW=σ2-W2 and a soft part at both ends of length (σ - σW)/2. These rods interact via effective k-body potentials veff(k) (k ≥ 2). The two- and the three-body potential will be calculated explicitly. In a second step, the free energy of this effective one-dimensional fluid is calculated up to leading order in (W/σ)2. Explicit results for, e.g., the perpendicular pressure, surface tension, and the density profile as a function of density, temperature, and pore width are presented and partly compared with results from Monte-Carlo simulations and standard virial expansions. Despite the perturbative character of our approach, it encompasses the singularity of the thermodynamic quantities at the jamming transition point.

Structural properties of liquids in extreme confinement

We simulate a hard-sphere liquid in confined geometry where the separation of the two parallel, hard walls is smaller than two particle diameters. By systematically reducing the wall separation we analyze the behavior of structural and thermodynamic properties, such as inhomogeneous density profiles, structure factors, and compressibilities when approaching the two-dimensional limit. In agreement with asymptotic predictions, we find for quasi-two-dimensional fluids that the density profile becomes parabolic and the structure factor converges toward its two-dimensional counterpart. To extract the compressibility in polydisperse samples a perturbative expression is used which qualitatively influences the observed nonmonotonic dependence of the compressibility with wall separation. We also present theoretical calculations based on fundamental-measure theory and integral-equation theory, which are in very good agreement with the simulation results.

Mode-coupling theory of the glass transition for colloidal liquids in slit geometry

We provide a detailed derivation of the mode-coupling equations for a colloidal liquid confined by two parallel smooth walls. We introduce irreducible memory kernels for the different relaxation channels thereby extending the projection operator technique to colloidal liquids in slit geometry. Investigating both the collective dynamics as well as the tagged-particle motion, we prove that the mode-coupling functional assumes the same form as in the Newtonian case corroborating the universality of the glass-transition singularity with respect to the microscopic dynamics.

Diverging Time Scale in the Dimensional Crossover for Liquids in Strong Confinement

We study a strongly interacting dense hard-sphere system confined between two parallel plates by event-driven molecular dynamics simulations to address the fundamental question of the nature of the 3D to 2D crossover. As the fluid becomes more and more confined the dynamics of the transverse and lateral degrees of freedom decouple, which is accompanied by a diverging time scale separating 2D from 3D behavior. Relying on the time-correlation function of the transversal kinetic energy, the scaling behavior and its density dependence is explored. Surprisingly, our simulations reveal that its time dependence becomes purely exponential such that memory effects can be ignored. We rationalize our findings quantitatively in terms of an analytic theory which becomes exact in the limit of strong confinement.