Lennard-Jones fluids confined in nanoscopic slits: Evidence for reentrant filling transitions

By using grand canonical and canonical ensemble Monte Carlo simulations, the structure and phase behavior of a Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluid confined between the parallel (100) planes of a face-centered cubic crystal are studied. Slit pores with a width which allows three adsorbate layers to form are used. It is shown that the filled pore consists of three commensurate layers over a wide range of the surface potential strength, while the pore-filling mechanism and the topology of the phase diagram change when the strength of this fluid-wall potential is varied. Condensation may occur in one step or via two layering-like transitions. The structure of monolayer films depends on the strength and corrugation of the surface potential, and the condensation of the middle layer may induce a reentrant first-order transition.Received: 16 January 2004, Published online: 23 March 2004PACS: 64.70.Nd Structural transitions in nanoscale materials - 64.60.Cn Order-disorder transformations; statistical mechanics of model systems - 68.35.Rh Phase transitions and critical phenomena