Confinement Effects in Droplet Formation on a Solid Particle

Formation of a droplet around a spherical solid particle in supersaturated vapor is considered. The number and stability of equilibrium solutions in a closed small system are studied in the canonical ensemble in comparison to an open system in the grand canonical ensemble. Depending on the system's parameters, two modes exist in the canonical ensemble: the first one with only one solution and the second one with three solutions; the presence of the third solution is due to confinement. The analysis is conducted first on a macroscopic thermodynamic level of description, and then the results are supported by studies within two versions of classical density functional theory: the square-gradient approximation with the Carnahan-Starling equation of state for hard spheres on a completely wettable particle and the random-phase approximation with the fundamental measure theory on a poorly wettable particle. In the latter case, a solution breaking the spherical symmetry is observed at a small total number of molecules.

A Unified Approach to Disjoining Pressure in Liquid and Vapor Interlayer within the Framework of the Density Functional Theory

Abstract

The classical density functional theory makes it possible to explicitly calculate the local density profiles, the components of the pressure tensor, and the thicknesses of thin interlayers between a lyophilic or lyophobic solid surface and, accordingly, gas or liquid phases at different values of the chemical potentials of the phases. Within the framework of a unified approach based on the gradient approximation of the classical density functional theory, it has been shown that, at certain values of parameters characterizing the wettability or nonwettability of a solid, equilibrium liquid films or vapor layers of a uniform thickness are formed around a spherical particle, if its surface is lyophilic or lyophobic, respectively. Mechanical and thermodynamic definitions have been given for the disjoining pressure in the spherical liquid or vapor interlayer around a solid particle, and the agreement between the definitions has been proven by calculations at different interlayer thicknesses and particle radii. It has been shown that the disjoining pressure in a vapor interlayer around a nanosized lyophobic particle decreases with an increase in particle radius, with this phenomenon being opposite to the situation with liquid films.