K. Binder et al., WETTING AND CAPILLARY CONDENSATION OF LATTICE GASES IN THIN-FILM GEOMETRY, Berichte der Bunsengesellschaft fur Physikalische Chemie, 98(3), 1994, pp. 340-345
Citations number
27
Categorie Soggetti
Chemistry Physical
Journal title
Berichte der Bunsengesellschaft fur Physikalische Chemie
Monte Carlo studies of lattice gas models with attractive interactions
between nearest neighbors on a simple cubic lattice are carried out f
or a L x L x D geometry with two hard walls of size L x L and periodic
boundary conditions parallel to the wall. Two types of short-range fo
rces at the walls are considered: (i) Both walls are of the same type
and exert an attractive force of the same strength (in Ising model ter
minology, surface fields H(D) = H-1 occur). (ii) The walls differ, one
attracts and the other repels particles, again with the same strength
(H(D) = -H-1). In the first case, capillary condensation occurs at a
chemical potential differing from its value for phase coexistence in t
he bulk, and the (second-order) wetting transition that occurs for D -
-> infinity is rounded off. In the second case, an interface parallel
to the walls is stabilized and we observe the interface delocalization
transition predicted by Parry and Evans. A first attempt to study the
nature of this ''quasi wetting transition'' by finite size scaling me
thods is reported, and discussed in the context of recent theories.