Wetting transitions in a cylindrical pore

Perpendicular Phase Separation in Confined Binary Liquids: Unveiling Novel Kinetics and Stabilization Mechanisms for Nanofilms

We investigated the dynamics of a binary mixture confined within van der Waals walls using molecular dynamics simulations. We discovered a novel phenomenon named perpendicular separations of two phases (PSTP). In the initial stage, central water molecules diffused, subsequently condensing symmetrically within the confinement's midplane. In the later stage, as water droplets nucleate and grow, the resin separates perpendicularly into two films due to the action of bubblers and vdW walls, resulting in a hollow nanochannel. The mechanisms and conditions underlying PSTP are discussed. The results indicate that the concentration (C) of resin in the middle region is linearly decreased with temporal power (C(t,T) ∝ a(T)t1/3). We propose a new mechanism for stabilizing nanochannels and films: dynamic "soft pillars" that prevent Rayleigh-like instability. Our findings could shed light on the manufacture of nanofilms and organic nanochannels, which could help advance biodetection and energy fields.

Surface-directed spinodal decomposition of fluids confined in a cylindrical pore

The surface-directed spinodal decomposition of a binary liquid confined inside a cylindrical pore is investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. One component of the liquid wets the pore surface while the other remains neutral. A variety of wetting conditions are studied. For the partial wetting case, after an initial period of phase separation, the domains organize themselves into pluglike structures and the system enters into a metastable state. Therefore, a complete phase separation is never achieved. Analysis of domain growth and the structure factor suggests a one-dimensional growth dynamics for the partial wetting case. As the wetting interaction is increased beyond a critical value, a transition from the pluglike to tubelike domain formation is observed, which corresponds to the full wetting morphology. Thus, a complete phase separation is achieved as the wetting species moves towards the pore surface and forms layers enclosing the nonwetting species residing around the axis of the cylinder. The coarsening dynamics of both the species are studied separately. The wetting species is found to follow a two-dimensional domain growth dynamics with a growth exponent 1/2 in the viscous hydrodynamic regime. This was substantiated by the Porod tail of the structure factor. On the other hand, the domain grows linearly with time for the nonwetting species. This suggests that the nonwetting species behaves akin to a three-dimensional bulk system. An appropriate reasoning is presented to justify the given observations.

Observation and Isochoric Thermodynamic Analysis of Partially Water-Filled 1.32 and 1.45 nm Diameter Carbon Nanotubes

Recent measurements of fluids under extreme confinement, including water within narrow carbon nanotubes, exhibit marked deviations from continuum theoretical descriptions. In this work, we generate precise carbon nanotube replicates that are filled with water, closed from external mass transfer, and studied over a wide temperature range by Raman spectroscopy. We study segments that are empty, partially filled, and completely filled with condensed water from -80 to 120 °C. Partially filled, nanodroplet states contain submicron vapor-like and liquid-like domains and are analyzed using a Clausius-Clapeyron-type model, yielding heats of condensation of water inside closed 1.32 nm diameter carbon nanotubes (3.32 ± 0.10 kJ/mol and 3.72 ± 0.11 kJ/mol) and 1.45 nm diameter carbon nanotubes (3.50 ± 0.07 kJ/mol) that are lower than the bulk enthalpy of vaporization and closer to the bulk enthalpy of fusion. Favored partial filling fractions are calculated, highlighting the effect of subnanometer changes in confining diameter on fluid properties and suggesting the promise of molecular engineering of nanoconfined liquid/vapor interfaces for water treatment or membrane distillation.

Impact of complex topology of porous media on phase separation of binary mixtures

Porous materials, which are characterized by the large surface area and percolated nature crucial for transport, play an important role in many technological applications including battery, ion exchange, catalysis, microelectronics, medical diagnosis, and oil recovery. Phase separation of a mixture in such a porous structure should be strongly influenced by both surface wetting and strong geometrical confinement effects. Despite its fundamental and technological importance, however, this problem has remained elusive for a long time because of the difficulty associated with the complex geometry of pore structures. We overcome this by developing a novel phase-field model of two coupled order parameters, the composition field of a binary mixture and the density field of a porous structure. We find that demixing behavior in complex pore structures is severely affected by the topological characteristics of porous materials, contrary to the conventional belief that it can be inferred from the behavior in a simple cylindrical pore. Our finding not only reveals the physical mechanism of demixing in random porous structures but also has an impact on technological applications.

Phase separation of triethylamine and water in native and organically modified silica nanopores

A mixture of triethylamine and water is a lower critical solution temperature system that demixes (separates into individual phases) on heating. Differential scanning calorimetry has been applied to study the process of demixing in native and organically modified silica nanopores whose size varied from 4 to 30 nm. It has been found that in both types of nanopores, the temperature and enthalpy of demixing decrease significantly with decreasing the pore size. Isoconversional kinetic analysis has been utilized to determine the activation energy and pre-exponential factor of the process. It has been demonstrated that the depression of the transition temperature upon nanoconfinement is associated with acceleration of the process due to lowering of the activation energy. Nanoconfinement has also been found to lower the pre-exponential factor of the process that has been linked to a decrease in the molecular mobility.

Condensation of helium in aerogel and athermal dynamics of the random-field Ising model

High resolution measurements reveal that condensation isotherms of (4)He in high porosity silica aerogel become discontinuous below a critical temperature. We show that this behavior does not correspond to an equilibrium phase transition modified by the disorder induced by the aerogel structure, but to the disorder-driven critical point predicted for the athermal out-of-equilibrium dynamics of the random-field Ising model. Our results evidence the key role of nonequilibrium effects in the phase transitions of disordered systems.

Three-dimensional reconstruction of liquid phases in disordered mesopores usingin situsmall-angle scattering

Small-angle scattering of X-rays (SAXS) or neutrons is one of the few experimental methods currently available for thein situanalysis of phenomena in mesoporous materials at the mesoscopic scale. In the case of disordered mesoporous materials, however, the main difficulty of the method lies in the data analysis. A stochastic model is presented, which enables one to reconstruct the three-dimensional nanostructure of liquids confined in disordered mesopores starting from small-angle scattering data. This so-called plurigaussian model is a multi-phase generalization of clipped Gaussian random field models. Its potential is illustrated through the synchrotron SAXS analysis of a gel permeated with a critical nitrobenzene/hexane solution that is progressively cooled below its consolute temperature. The reconstruction brings to light a wetting transition whereby the nanostructure of the pore-filling liquids passes from wetting layers that uniformly cover the solid phase of the gel to plugs that locally occlude the pores. Using the plurigaussian model, the dewetting phenomenon is analyzed quantitatively at the nanometre scale in terms of changing specific interface areas, contact angle and specific length of the triple line.

Design of Cluster-free Polymer Electrolyte Membranes and Implications on Proton Conductivity

Nanoscale ionic aggregates are ubiquitous in copolymers containing charged and uncharged monomers. In most cases, these clusters persist when these polymers are hydrated and ion-conducting channels percolate through the sample. We argue that these clusters impede ion motion due to (1) the requirement that ions must hop across ion-free regions in the channels as they are transported from one cluster to the next, and (2) increased counterion condensation due to proximity of fixed acid groups in the clusters. Block copolymers wherein the size of the ion-containing microphase is 6 nm or less provides one approach for eliminating the clusters.

Confinement-driven phase separation of quantum liquid mixtures

We report small-angle neutron scattering studies of liquid helium mixtures confined in Mobil Crystalline Material-41 (MCM-41), a porous silica glass with narrow cylindrical nanopores (d=3.4 nm). MCM-41 is an ideal model adsorbent for fundamental studies of gas sorption in porous media because its monodisperse pores are arranged in a 2D triangular lattice. The small-angle scattering consists of a series of diffraction peaks whose intensities are determined by how the imbibed liquid fills the pores. Pure (4)He adsorbed in the pores show classic, layer-by-layer film growth as a function of pore filling, leaving the long range symmetry of the system intact. In contrast, the adsorption of (3)He-(4)He mixtures produces a structure incommensurate with the pore lattice. Neither capillary condensation nor preferential adsorption of one helium isotope to the pore walls can provide the symmetry-breaking mechanism. The scattering is consistent with the formation of randomly distributed liquid-liquid microdomains ∼2.3 nm in size, providing evidence that confinement in a nanometer scale capillary can drive local phase separation in quantum liquid mixtures.

Adsorption, capillary bridge formation, and cavitation in SBA-15 corrugated mesopores: a Derjaguin-Broekhoff-de Boer analysis

A Derjaguin-Broekhoff-de Boer analysis of adsorption and desorption in SBA-15 mesoporous silica is presented, using realistic geometrical models that account for the pore corrugation in these materials. The model parameters are derived from independent electron tomography and small-angle scattering characterization. A geometrical characteristic of the pore that is found to be important for adsorption is the corrugation length, l(C), which describes the longitudinal size of the geometrical defects along a given pore. Capillary bridges are possible only for large values of l(C). The results are explained in terms of two spinodal and two equilibrium pressures, characterizing the wide and the narrow sections of the pores. Simplified analytical expressions are obtained, which provide necessary conditions for bridge formation and for cavitation in terms of the radii of the narrow and wide sections of the pores, as well as of l(C). Quite generally, the results show that the deviation of the pore shape from that of ideal cylinders is key to understanding adsorption and desorption in corrugated mesopores, notably in SBA-15.

Capillary condensation in cylindrical pores: Monte Carlo study of the interplay of surface and finite size effects

When a fluid that undergoes a vapor to liquid transition in the bulk is confined to a long cylindrical pore, the phase transition is shifted (mostly due to surface effects at the walls of the pore) and rounded (due to finite size effects). The nature of the phase coexistence at the transition depends on the length of the pore: for very long pores, the system is axially homogeneous at low temperatures. At the chemical potential where the transition takes place, fluctuations occur between vapor- and liquidlike states of the cylinder as a whole. At somewhat higher temperatures (but still far below bulk criticality), the system at phase coexistence is in an axially inhomogeneous multidomain state, where long cylindrical liquid- and vaporlike domains alternate. Using Monte Carlo simulations for the Ising/lattice gas model and the Asakura-Oosawa model of colloid-polymer mixtures, the transition between these two different scenarios is characterized. It is shown that the density distribution changes gradually from a double-peak structure to a triple-peak shape, and the correlation length in the axial direction (measuring the equilibrium domain length) becomes much smaller than the cylinder length. The (rounded) transition to the disordered phase of the fluid occurs when the axial correlation length has decreased to a value comparable to the cylinder diameter. It is also suggested that adsorption hysteresis vanishes when the transition from the simple domain state to the multidomain state of the cylindrical pore occurs. We predict that the difference between the pore critical temperature and the hysteresis critical temperature should increase logarithmically with the length of the pore.

Phase Separation of a Binary Liquid System in Controlled-Pore Glass

The phase separation behaviour and the dynamics of concentration fluctuations of binary liquid mixtures are strongly influenced by confinement effects. We have investigated this confinement effect for the binary system isobutyric acid iBA + D2O imbibed into a mesoporous silica glass (CPG-10). The dynamics of the mixture are studied in the one-phase region as well as in the phase-separated state by means of neutron spin echo spectroscopy (NSE). Moreover, the averaged structures of the liquid are explored by means of small angle neutron scattering (SANS) leading to a length scale 4 < ξ < 9 nm for the fluctuations. The associated effective diffusion coefficient Deff as obtained for NSE is found to decrease with temperature ny nearly one order of magnitude in the temperature range from 75°C to 25°C.

Rounding of phase transitions in cylindrical pores

Phase transitions of systems confined in long cylindrical pores (capillary condensation, wetting, crystallization, etc.) are intrinsically not sharply defined but rounded. The finite size of the cross section causes destruction of long range order along the pore axis by spontaneous nucleation of domain walls. This rounding is analyzed for two models (Ising or lattice gas and Asakura-Oosawa model for colloid-polymer mixtures) by Monte Carlo simulations and interpreted by a phenomenological theory. We show that characteristic differences between the behavior of pores of finite length and infinitely long pores occur. In pores of finite length a rounded transition occurs first, from phase coexistence between two states towards a multidomain configuration. A second transition to the axially homogeneous phase follows near pore criticality.

Critical behavior of symmetrical fluid mixtures in random pores

We study the liquid-liquid demixing of a binary mixture with a symmetrical coupling to the quenched disorder by means of computer simulation. The critical point in the thermodynamic limit is estimated both by assuming the knowledge of the critical exponents and independently of them. The finite-size scaling analysis of the susceptibilities and the values of the critical amplitudes show that the universality class of the fluid mixture is compatible with the diluted quenched-Ising model. Our findings extend the class of systems exhibiting the same critical behavior of diluted antiferromagnets.

Symmetry breaking in binary mixtures in closed nanoslits

The symmetry breaking (SB) of the fluid density distribution (FDD) in closed nanoslits between two identical parallel solid walls described by Berim and Ruckenstein [J. Chem. Phys. 128, 024704 (2008)] for a single component fluid is examined for binary mixtures on the basis of a nonlocal canonical ensemble density functional theory. As in Monte Carlo simulations, the periodicity of the FDD in one of the lateral (parallel to the wall surfaces) directions, denoted as the x direction, was assumed. In the other lateral direction, y direction, the FDD was considered to be uniform. The molecules of the two components have different diameters and their Lennard-Jones interaction potentials have different energy parameters. It was found that depending on the average fluid density in the slit and mixture composition, SB can occur for both or none of the components but never for only one of them. In the direction perpendicular to the walls (h direction), the FDDs of both components can be asymmetrical about the middle plane between walls. In the x direction, the SB occurs as bumps and bridges enriched in one of the components, whereas the composition of the mixture between them is enriched in the other component. The dependence of the SB states on the length Lx of the FDD period at fixed average densities of the two components was examined for Lx in the range from 10 to 120 molecular diameters of the smaller size component. It was shown that for large Lx, the stable state of the system corresponds to a bridge. Because the free energy of that state decreases monotonically with increasing Lx, one can conclude that the real period is very large (infinite) and that a single bridge exists in the slit.

Temperature effects on phase equilibrium and diffusion in mesopores

The equilibrium and dynamic properties of fluids confined to mesoporous material have been studied using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods. Molecular diffusion of n -pentane in Vycor porous glass within closed sample tubes has been measured by means of the pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR method for temperatures notably exceeding the boiling point of the neat liquid. It is found that the temperature dependence of the diffusivity dramatically depends on the state of the fluid surrounding the mesoporous monoliths. In an oversaturated sample, i.e., in a sample containing some amount of the liquid also outside of the porous material, the diffusivity in the mesopores followed the Arrhenius dependence. In samples with only the mesopores saturated by the liquid, i.e., without any excess fluid, with increasing temperature the diffusivity notably deviated from the Arrhenius dependence towards higher diffusivities. The analysis of the intensities of the respective NMR signals from the fluid within the porous material and in the surrounding phase has revealed that this anomaly is accompanied by the formation of a space free of liquid within the pore system. With the measured pore filling factors, the resulting overall diffusivity is estimated by a two-region approach with diffusion occurring in either the liquid phase or the free space within the pore volume. It is shown that this procedure, free of any fitting parameters, yields excellent agreement with the experimental data.

Arrested segregative phase separation in capillary tubes

Phase separation in a capillary tube with one of the phases fully wetting the capillary wall is arrested when the typical size of the phase domains reaches the value of the diameter of the tube. The arrested state consists of an alternating sequence of concave-capped and convex-capped cylindrical domains, called "plugs," "bridges," or "lenses," of wetting and nonwetting phase, respectively. A description of this arrested plug state for an aqueous mixture of two polymer solutions is the subject of this work. A phase separating system consisting of two incompatible polymers dissolved in water was studied. The phase volume ratio was close to unity. The initial state from which plugs evolve is characterized by droplets of wetting phase in a continuous nonwetting phase. Experiments show the formation of plugs by a pathway that differs from the theoretically well-described instabilities in the thickness of a fluid thread inside a confined fluid cylinder. Plugs appear to form after the wetting layer (the confined fluid cylinder) has become unstable after merging of droplet with the wetting layer. The relative density of the phases could be set by the addition of salt, enabling density matching. As a consequence, the capillary length can in principle be made infinitely large and the Bond number (which represents the force of gravity relative to the capillary force) zero, without considerably changing the interfacial tension. Using the possibility of density matching, the relations among capillary length and capillary diameter on the one hand, and the presence of plugs and their average size on the other were studied. It was found that stable plugs are present when the capillary radius does not exceed a certain value, which is probably smaller than the capillary length. However, the average plug size is independent of capillary length. At constant capillary length, average plug size was found to scale with the capillary diameter to a power 1.3, significantly higher than the expected value of 1. Plug sizes had a polydispersity between 1.1 and 1.2 for all capillary radii for which this number could be reliably determined, suggesting a universal plug size distribution. Within plug sequences, size correlations were found between plugs with one to three plugs in between. This suggests the presence of an additional length scale.

Kinetics of phase separation in thin films: simulations for the diffusive case

We study the diffusion-driven kinetics of phase separation of a symmetric binary mixture (AB), confined in a thin-film geometry between two parallel walls. We consider cases where (i) both walls preferentially attract the same component (A), and (ii) one wall attracts and the other wall attracts (with the same strength). We focus on the interplay of phase separation and wetting at the walls, which is referred to as surface-directed spinodal decomposition (SDSD). The formation of SDSD waves at the two surfaces, with wave vectors oriented perpendicular to them, often results in a metastable layered state (also referred to as "stratified morphology"). This state is reminiscent of the situation where the thin film is still in the one-phase region but the surfaces are completely wet, and hence coated with thick wetting layers. This metastable state decays by spinodal fluctuations and crosses over to an asymptotic growth regime characterized by the lateral coarsening of pancakelike domains. These pancakes may or may not be coated by precursors of wetting layers. We use Langevin simulations to study this crossover and the growth kinetics in the asymptotic coarsening regime.

Electrolytic transport through a synthetic nanometer-diameter pore

We have produced single, synthetic nanometer-diameter pores by using a tightly focused, high-energy electron beam to sputter atoms in 10-nm-thick silicon nitride membranes. Subsequently, we measured the ionic conductance as a function of time, bath concentration, and pore diameter to infer the conductivity and ionic mobility through the pores. The pore conductivity is found to be much larger than the bulk conductivity for dilute bath concentrations, where the Debye length is larger than the pore radius, whereas it is comparable with or less than the bulk for high bath concentrations. We interpret these observations by using multiscale simulations of the ion transport through the pores. Molecular dynamics is used to estimate the ion mobility, and ion transport in the pore is described by the coupled Poisson-Nernst-Planck and the Stokes equations that are solved self-consistently for the ion concentration and velocity and electrical potential. We find that the measurements are consistent with the presence of fixed negative charge in the pore wall and a reduction of the ion mobility because of the fixed charge and the ion proximity to the pore wall.

Condensation phenomena in nanopores: A Monte Carlo study

The nonequilibrium dynamics of condensation phenomena in nanopores is studied via Monte Carlo simulations of a lattice-gas model. Hysteretic behavior of the particle density as a function of the density of a reservoir is obtained for various pore geometries in two and three dimensions. The shape of the hysteresis loops depend on the characteristics of the pore geometry. The evaporation of particles from a pore can be fitted to a stretched exponential decay of the particle density. Phase-separation dynamics inside the pore is effectively described by a random walk of the non-wetting phases. Domain evolution is significantly slowed down in the presence of a random wall-particle potential and gives rise to a temperature-dependent growth exponent. A geometric roughness of the pore wall only delays the onset of a pure domain growth.

Local structure of a phase-separating binary mixture in a mesoporous glass matrix studied by small-angle neutron scattering

The mesoscopic structure of the binary system isobutyric acid + heavy water (D(2)O) confined in a porous glass (controlled-pore silica glass, mean pore width ca. 10 nm) was studied by small-angle neutron scattering at off-critical compositions in a temperature range above and below the upper critical solution point. The scattering data were analyzed in terms of a structure factor model similar to that proposed by Formisano and Teixeira [Eur. Phys. J. E 1, 1 (2000)], but allowing for both Ornstein-Zernike-type composition fluctuations and domainlike structures in the microphase-separated state of the pore liquid. The results indicate that the phase separation in the pores is shifted by ca. 10 K and spread out in temperature. Microphase separation is pictured as a transition from partial segregation at high temperature, due to the strong preferential adsorption of water at the pore wall, to a tube or capsule configuration of the two phases at low temperatures, depending on the overall composition of the pore liquid. Results for samples in which the composition of the pore liquid can vary with temperature due to equilibration with extra-pore liquid are consistent with this picture.

Phase behavior and local structure of a binary mixture in pores: Mean-field lattice model calculations for analyzing neutron scattering data

We investigate the phase behavior of an asymmetric binary liquid A-W mixture confined between two planar homogenous substrates (slit pore). Molecules of species W interact preferentially with the solid walls via a long-range potential. Assuming nearest-neighbor attractions between the liquid molecules, we employ a lattice-gas model and a mean-field approximation for the grand potential. Minimization of this potential yields the density profiles of thermodynamically stable phases for fixed temperature, chemical potentials of both species, pore width and strengths of attraction. This model is used to analyze experimental small-angle neutron-scattering (SANS) data on the microscopic structure of the binary system isobutyric acid (iBA)+heavy water (D2O) inside a mesoscopic porous matrix (controlled-pore glass of about 10 nm mean pore width). Confinement-independent model parameters are adjusted so that the theoretical liquid-liquid coexistence curve in the bulk matches its experimental counterpart. By choosing appropriate values of the pore width and the attraction strength between substrates and water we analyze the effect of confinement on the phase diagram. In addition to a depression of the liquid-liquid critical point we observe surface induced phase transitions as well as water-film adsorption near the walls. The temperature dependence of the structure of water-rich and iBA-rich phases of constant composition are discussed in detail. The theoretical predictions are consistent with results of the SANS study and assist their interpretation.

Breakup of a fluid thread in a confined geometry: droplet-plug transition, perturbation sensitivity, and kinetic stabilization with confinement

We investigate the influence of geometrical confinement on the breakup of long fluid threads in the absence of imposed flow using a lattice Boltzmann model. Our simulations primarily focus on the case of threads centered coaxially in a tube filled with another Newtonian fluid and subjected to both impulsive and random perturbations. We observe a significant slowing down of the rate of thread breakup ("kinetic stabilization") over a wide range of the confinement, Lambda= R(tube)/R(thread) < or =10 and find that the relative surface energies of the liquid components influence this effect. For Lambda<2.3, there is a transition in the late-stage morphology between spherical droplets and tube "plugs." Unstable distorted droplets ("capsules") form as transient structures for intermediate confinement (Lambda approximately equal 2.1-2.5). Surprisingly, the thread breakup process for more confined threads (Lambda< or =1.9 ) is found to be sensitive to the nature of the initial thread perturbation. Localized impulsive perturbations ("taps") cause a "bulging" of the fluid at the wall, followed by thread breakup through the propagation of a wave-like disturbance ("end-pinch instability") initiating from the thread rupture point. Random impulses along the thread, modeling thermal fluctuations, lead to a complex breakup process involving a competition between the Raleigh and end-pinch instabilities. We also briefly compare our tube simulations to threads confined between parallel plates and to multiple interacting threads under confinement.

Density fluctuations near the liquid-gas critical point of a confined fluid

We report the results of an experimental study of the effect of a dilute silica network on liquid-gas critical phenomena in carbon dioxide (CO2). Using small-angle neutron scattering, we measured the correlation length of the density fluctuations in bulk (xi(bulk)) and confined CO2 (xi(conf)) as a function of temperature and average fluid density. We find that quenched disorder induced by an aerogel suppresses density fluctuations: xi(conf) loses the Ising model divergence characteristic of xi(bulk) and does not exceed the size of pores in the homogeneous region.

Phase transitions and quantum effects in pore condensates: a path integral Monte Carlo study

Lennard-Jones condensates in cylindrical pores are studied by path integral Monte Carlo simulations with particular emphasis on phase transitions and quantum effects. The pore diameter effect and the influence of the interaction strength between the cylinder wall and the adsorbate particles on the structures and the location of the phase boundaries is studied and the quantum effect on the phase diagram is quantified by path integral Monte Carlo simulations. In case of strong wall-particle interactions good qualitative agreement with recent experimental results for the freezing of Ar-pore condensates is found. Meniscus structures in the solid phase are obtained as well as unexpected condensate structures for the system with the lighter Ne-particles due to quantum delocalization effects. The quantum effect on the freezing temperature can be as large as 10% in these systems.

Low-temperature phase separation of a binary liquid mixture in porous materials studied by cryoporometry and pulsed-field-gradient NMR

The low-temperature liquid-liquid phase separation of the partially miscible hexane-nitrobenzene mixture imbibed in porous glasses of different pore sizes from 7 to 130 nm has been studied using 1H NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) cryoporometry and pulse field gradient NMR methods. The mixture was quenched below both its upper critical solution temperature (T(cr)) and the freezing point of nitrobenzene. The size distribution of frozen nitrobenzene domains was derived through their melting point suppression according to the Gibbs-Thompson relation. The obtained data reveal small initial droplets of nitrobenzene surrounded by hexane, which are created as the temperature is decreased below T(cr) and which thereafter coalesce by a droplet-diffusion mechanism. The inter-relation between the pore size and the found size distribution and shapes of nitrobenzene domains is discussed, as well as several aspects of molecular self-diffusion.

Lattice model of gas condensation within nanopores

We explore the thermodynamic behavior of gases adsorbed within a nanopore. The theoretical description employs a simple lattice gas model, with two species of site, expected to describe various regimes of adsorption and condensation behavior. The model includes four hypothetical phases: a cylindrical shell phase (S), in which the sites close to the cylindrical wall are occupied, an axial phase (A), in which sites along the cylinder's axis are occupied, a full phase (F), in which all sites are occupied, and an empty phase (E). We obtain exact results at T=0 for the phase behavior, which is a function of the interactions present in any specific problem. We obtain the corresponding results at finite T from mean field theory. Finally, we examine the model's predicted phase behavior of some real gases adsorbed in nanopores.

Inside the hysteresis loop: multiplicity of internal states in confined fluids

We study the equilibrium and stability of metastable states and capillary condensation hysteresis of a Lennard-Jones fluid in cylindrical pores by means of the canonical ensemble density functional theory and gauge cell Monte Carlo simulations. We demonstrate a possibility for the existence of multiple laterally uniform internal states of equal density inside the hysteresis loop. The region of multiple states is bounded by the states of zero compressibility. The internal states can be stabilized in Monte Carlo simulations constraining the density fluctuations.

Capillary condensation as a morphological transition

The process of capillary condensation/evaporation in cylindrical pores is considered within the idea of symmetry breaking. Capillary condensation/evaporation is treated as a morphological transition between the wetting film configurations of different symmetry. We considered two models: (i) the classical Laplace theory of capillarity and (ii) the Derjaguin model which takes into account the surface forces expressed in terms of the disjoining pressure. Following the idea of Everett and Haynes, the problem of condensation/evaporation is considered as a transition from bumps/undulations to lenses. Using the method of phase portraits, we discuss the mathematical mechanisms of this transition hidden in the Laplace and Derjaguin equations. Analyzing the energetic barriers of the bump and lens formation, it is shown that the bump formation is a prerogative of capillary condensation: for the vapor-liquid transition in a pore, the bump plays the same role as the spherical nucleus in a bulk fluid. We show also that the Derjaguin model admits a variety of interfacial configurations responsible for film patterning at specific conditions.

Capillary Condensation in Pores with Energetically Heterogeneous Walls: Density Functional versus Monte Carlo Calculations

We investigate adsorption of a Lennard-Jones fluid in slit-like pores with energetically heterogeneous walls by using Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations and a density functional approach. The model of a fluid-wall potential is qualitatively similar to that invoked by Röcken et al. (J. Chem. Phys. 108, 8089, (1999); i.e., it consists of a homogeneous part that varies in the direction perpendicular to the wall and a periodic part, varying also in one direction parallel to the wall, but in contrast to the above mentioned work, both parts of the fluid-wall potential are modeled by Lennard-Jones (9, 3) type functions. The structure of the adsorbed film is characterized by local densities. We evaluate the phase diagrams for several systems characterized by different corrugation of the adsorbing potential and discuss the discrepancies between theoretical predictions and computer simulations. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Phase-morphology map of polymer-blend thin films confined to narrow strips

Upon lateral confinement, a critical polymer-blend film at 200 degrees C has been directed to form tube, capsule, confined domain, and multiple domain configurations. A phase-morphology map is produced by varying the confinement width ( W) and film thickness ( h(0)), and interpreted using a single pore model. Using the known correlation length, capsule length, and W, the boundary, in terms of W/h(0), between configurations is predicted and found to be in good agreement with experiment. This morphology map has potential applications for microencapsulating drugs and self-assembled conducting wires.

Surface-directed spinodal decomposition in binary fluid mixtures

We consider the phase separation of binary fluids in contact with a surface, which is preferentially wetted by one of the components of the mixture. We review the results available for this problem and present numerical results obtained using a mesoscopic level simulation technique for the three-dimensional problem.